The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976)

[Allhallowsday]

akira -spoiler alert   whatever however you do it-------   +++===


the ending was awesome. she was going to kill herself rather than be raped by the guy and instead he took her drink. the camera lingered on her for the entirety of the credits. i thought it was really effective ending

Funny, but I never really took the ending as Rynn was going to kill herself. I always thought she knew he would take her cup instead for some reason. Either way, I liked the ending, too.

She was not going to kill herself; she knew exactly what she was doing.  The point being she'd graduated from accidental homicide to actual murder. 

[AndyC]

Like about a few hundred other films from the early to mid 70's. They were dark times and the films reflected that.

That is one of the things I love about movies from that time, including this one. They could get away with endings that were dark and/or ambiguous. Nowadays, if it isn't a happy (or at least optimistic) ending, it's a cheap shock ending. And you don't get much ambiguity unless it's blatantly setting up a sequel. Back then, you could do it for artistic reasons.

Saw this movie on TV a few months ago. It was the first time I'd seen it in probably close to 30 years. Not as much tension as I remember, but that's true of most thrillers I saw as a kid.

It did remind me of how good Martin Sheen was at playing smarmy creeps.

[wreckage3001]

I agree AndyC, they don't do such films today. Anyway this is Jodie Foster's best performance ever.

If you love TLGWLDTL like I do please visit rynnjacobs.blogspot.com, it's completely dedicated to the movie. Even if you're a big fan I bet that you might find many new and interesting details there...

[wreckage3001]

akira -spoiler alert   whatever however you do it-------   +++===


the ending was awesome. she was going to kill herself rather than be raped by the guy and instead he took her drink. the camera lingered on her for the entirety of the credits. i thought it was really effective ending

Funny, but I never really took the ending as Rynn was going to kill herself. I always thought she knew he would take her cup instead for some reason. Either way, I liked the ending, too.

She was not going to kill herself; she knew exactly what she was doing.  The point being she'd graduated from accidental homicide to actual murder. 

To tell the truth this theory is no more provable than the other. The crucial line is her whispered "I thought I did" when Hallet asked her if she knows to survive. For me this is at least a possible sign of resignation, not of an ice cold killer plan. What's really interesting are her next two questions, "What about Mario?" and "Will you tell your wife". I think she knows his answers already and is fully aware of the things to come. Rynn is a clever girl sure, but not a single scene of the movie tells us she's devilish or like Damien from The Omen, she's no way a killer. What is quite different to the novel. But maybe some movie tag lines or the bad marketing of TLG gave some people the idea of  Rynn as a very dark person and this way a planned poisoning seems to make sense. Remember how Rynn discovers all these new feelings in very short time...first love and the possible sudden death of it the same week. And think about Rynn as a victim of her abusive mother. No, this is not a girl that knows about sickos always switching cups. I don't believe this.

[wreckage3001]

Did you know?

According to what I've read, it actually started out as a stage play.  I thought that was kind of interesting.  Makes sense though, considering most of the film takes place in the same room.

Anyway, it was a good film, definitely worth a watch.  I do wonder though, about the mentality of some of the people involved with the production of it.  If you read the trivia section of the imdb, it doesn't sound like Foster had a good time of it.



Can't say I blame her.  And WTF, where did they get a dead hamster?? (shudders)

You can find more details about the Connie situation and what JF said about it on my site. rynnjacobs.blogspot.com

[BTM]

Wpw, I must say, the sheer amount of detail as well as the information you go into on the film is pretty amazing (if a little obsessive.) 

A truly impressive work!