If you know me you know that I LOVE LOVE LOVE Patty Neal and all that she has done. But of all her fine films, this role of hers wins out over all the rest. If you'd asked me a few years ago I would not have thought so, but I watched this film again recently, and while her acting may be a bit different and some would say subdued in this picture, for lack of a better term, I think that it just shows that she really gave it her all in this role. A truly remarkable performance and one for the ages. Thank you, Patrician Neal.

Many people will say that this film was a botch up job of Joy Cowley's novel, but they would be wrong. While I have to admit that the type of filming they used in the 70's is not among my favourite, it worked well for this film because it gave you insight into how each character saw things. Patricia Niel was perfect as the spinster who was stuck caring for her blind and horrid adoptive mother, and who slowly but surely becomes sexually aware of the young drifter, played by Nicholas Clay. Some parts of the film are vaguely confusing, but one comes to grasp them after rolling the idea around in ones mind for a while. This film was very well done for an era that produced some awful movies that completely butchered famous books, and used skin instead of actual acting to portray a film. The Night Digger aka Road Runner is a very watchable film, that sneaks up on you rather than attacks you head on like some psychological thrillers do.

Patricia Neal+Bernard Herrmann + Neal's husband Dahl.Plus Pamela Brown and Nicholas Clay.It does make a decent film,it does not make the classic thriller we could have expected .Neala nd her mother ("you could have got married when you were YOUNG" said Clay to an infuriated Neal).A spinster who lives with her over possessive mother ,Neal's character recalls Nell's past in Shirley Jackson's "the haunting" (masterfully transferred to the screen by Robert Wise,then butchered some years ago).A good thing in the last minutes :the director does not show ,he lets us imagine what terrible thing happened .Today such a quality has become rare.But if you have read Dahl's wonderful short stories ,you may be disappointed by his script,including pointless characters such as the minister and his wife who want to become a woman and a man respectively. Besides the two women's story and Nicholas Clay's do not hang very well.

Roald Dahl has always been a good story-teller, and this movie, for which he wrote the screenplay, is no exception. It's a macabre love story with a somewhat unexpected ending. Very good acting and story-telling. I recommend this film for all Roald Dahl fans. 7/10.