Night Digger, The (1971) – Nostalgia Central

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Two forms of madness converge in the persons of an itinerant young motorcyclist and a drab, middle-aged spinster in The Night Digger.

The film explores the curious relationship between motorway roadbuilder Billy Jarvis (Nicholas Clay) – whose childhood sexual trauma has led him to play out his hostilities in a series of sex murders – and Maura Prince (Patricia Neal), a recovered stroke victim who lives with her blind but domineering adoptive mother, Edith (Pamela Brown) in a run-down Victorian mansion and carries within her a profound emptiness as the result of a broken love affair.

When Billy is hired by Edith as a live-in gardener and handyman at the house, he works hard for the women and soon has the almost ruined estate in showroom condition.

But on two occasions, he rides his motorcycle off into the night to rape, kill and bury local sweet, young things (including Likely Lads star Brigit Forsyth) under the nearest half-finished road.

Maura falls in love with Billy and abandons her stepmother, withdraws all her money and takes off with Billy to a clifftop cottage in Scotland, where she hopes legitimate affection will cure him of his homicidal compulsions.

Her overwhelming need for love has made her just as insane as Billy.

For a time, they are happy together in the seaside cottage, but their relationship is destined for an unhappy conclusion.

Roald Dahl, the then-husband of star Patricia Neal, wrote the screenplay.

Maura Prince
Patricia Neal
Mrs Edith Prince
Pamela Brown
Billy Jarvis
Nicholas Clay
Mrs Millicent McMurtrey
Jean Anderson
Mr Bolton
Graham Crowden
Mrs Palafox
Yootha Joyce
Rev. Rupert Palafox
Peter Sallis
District Nurse
Brigit Forsyth
Dr Ronnie Robinson
Sebastian Breaks
Mary Wingate
Diana Patrick
Jenny
Jenny McCracken
Bank Clerk
Bruce Myles
Stroke Patient
Zoe Alexander
Young Billy
Christopher Reynalds
Gypsy
Elaine Ives-Cameron
Whore
Sibylla Kay