The Night Digger

The Night Digger is a 1971 British horror thriller film directed by Alastair Reid and starring Patricia Neal, Pamela Brown and Nicholas Clay. The screenplay was by Roald Dahl based on the novel Nest in a Fallen Tree by Joy Cowley, about two women who are visited by a suspicious handy man.

Maura Prince works part-time as a speech therapist and the rest of her time taking care of her blind, invalid mother, Edith. Billy Jarvis arrives, claiming he was sent there in place of a neighbor's nephew who was to live with the Princes and work in their garden. He ingratiates himself with Edith, who gives him Maura's bedroom and claims he must be a long-lost relative. Despite Maura's worries, Billy turns out to be a helpful assistant.

While attending church with Edith, Billy notices pretty, young nursery school teacher Mary Wingate. That night, while having psychotic flashbacks of being raped by women and taunted for impotency, Billy goes to her home and murders her, then buries her body at a road construction site. The Princes' neighbors discuss the murder, which is the seventh in a series of killings of women. A nurse visits Edith and warns that Edith's heart is very bad. Edith, impatient when Billy doesn't answer her calls, tries to climb the stairs to his room and has a heart attack. Maura rushes her to the hospital. The nurse, returning to check on Edith, finds Billy there alone. Gripped by another bout of psychosis, he follows the nurse home and murders her as well.

When Maura returns from the hospital, she almost catches Billy coming home from the murder. To placate her, Billy lies, claiming his mother died in a fire. He weeps, claims he often doesn't know what he is doing, and begs Maura never to betray him. The next day, Maura visits Edith at the hospital. Edith demands that Maura throw Billy out, but Maura tells off Edith instead and decides to leave with Billy.

Maura takes all her savings, changes her wardrobe and hairstyle, and returns home to tell Billy that she loves him. After consummating their love, the two run off to Scotland, where they buy a sheep farm together. After some months have passed, Billy sees a young female neighbor looking for her dog, and Maura realizes what is happening when psychosis grips him later that day.

Hours afterward, Billy returns to the farm, psychotic. Maura realizes he has killed again, and silently confronts him in tears. Realizing he has broken Maura's heart, Billy drives off a cliff on his motorcycle, committing suicide. Maura, standing on the cliff face, silently mouths "I love you."

Roald Dahl wrote the script especially for his wife Neal, who was recovering from a series of strokes that almost killed her in 1965. He sent the script to a number of directors including Lindsay Anderson, William Friedkin, Lindsay Russell and Robert Altman. Eventually he chose Alistair Reid, who had worked extensively in theatre and television.

Patricia Neal later wrote "I received no salary for it. It simply would not have been made had I demanded anything close to my fee. Both Roald and I took expenses only, but would have shared in the profits had there been any."