by Allan Fish
(UK 1947 92m) DVD2
Calling Colley Cibber!
p Roy Boulting d John Boulting w Graham Greene, Terence Rattigan novel Graham Greene ph Harry Waxman ed Peter Graham m Hans May (including “The Hebrides” by Felix Mendelssohn) art John Howell
Richard Attenborough (Pinky Brown), Hermione Baddeley (Ida Arnold), William Hartnell (Dallow), Carol Marsh (Rose), Nigel Stock (Cubitt), Wylie Watson (Spicer), Harcourt Williams (Prewitt, the lawyer), Alan Wheatley (Fred Hale), George Carney (Phil Corkery), Charles Goldner (Collecni), Reginald Purdell, Constance Smith, Marianne Stone,
Brighton Rock is one of those great British institutions, not just of cinema, but of literature. Of course, it’s never going to be as crucial to those who haven’t known or lived through the days just before the war, when the film is set, and especially to those who do not know Brighton well. I myself have never been to Brighton, and all bar one of the people I know who did once live there had never heard of Greene’s novel. One, however, did know it and know it well, and for him, Brighton Rock was something spoken of in whispers and its hero, Pinky Brown, the essence of myth. He would say that he could almost feel The Lanes around every corner, the old quaint Brighton that would forever be lost after the war. Here was a film that predicted both the teen violence of A Clockwork Orange and the gang warfare of the Mods and Rockers on the Brighton beaches, immortalised in Quadrophenia. For too long, Brighton Rock has been overlooked, looked down upon by a critical fraternity too long dominated by American sensibilities. It should, however, be cherished as one of the truly great British films noir of the forties, superbly shot on location in the streets, piers, sea front and racecourse at Brighton. It’s also the best film the Boultings ever made. Ironically, their other masterwork also told of a rock, Thunder Rock. That was a lighthouse on Lake Michigan, far from the rock hard (hence the name) confectionary so long a staple at British seaside towns. Just as Gracie Fields’ Sing as We Go preserved the “Kiss me quick” mentality of that long gone institution for the North that is Blackpool, so did Brighton Rock for the south. David Thomson has said that Rock contains “an authentic tang of fish and chips.” He’s right, but it’s a tang with an unmistakably strong tang of vinegar.
We won’t waste time detailing the plot, because this is a film of iconic moments; future Sheriff of Nottingham Alan Wheatley’s cameo as ill-fated Colley Cibber, wandering the Brighton streets like a startled rabbit before his dispatching on the Ghost Train; Attenborough’s killing of Wylie Watson, pushing him through the damaged banister and the iconic finale with the young Pinky betraying his cowardice on the Pier.
There are many fine performances in the film; Alan Wheatley, Bill Hartnell and the delicious Harcourt Williams as the drunken crooked lawyer, but the real praise must go to Richard Attenborough, whose Pinky is one of British cinema’s great villains. It’s a performance of incredible power, his scarred face dripping evil from every pore, even acknowledging a homosexual subtext to his character. Indeed, we must ask whether he actually ever has sex with his young bride. Photographed with great menace by Harry Waxman, and with great use of Mendelssohn’s music, the Boultings conjure up a truly delirious nightmare. The ending, which allows the heroine to keep her illusions (”you want me to say I love you…”) and was imposed by stern moralist J.Arthur Rank, was much criticised as a cop out at the time, but now it seems a deliciously cynical twist in a film dripping such gloom. This pleasure palace, like Pleasure Island in Pinocchio and the eponymous Atlantic City, is but a façade. We peer beneath the surface to the crustaceans underneath the pier, and see that the whole thing is rotten to the core. Yet despite this, we wouldn’t have it any other way. (The film and the location must have made an impact on Attenborough, as he set Oh What a Lovely War! entirely on the same old West Pier, which was eventually destroyed by fire in March 2003.)
A thoughtful study of a long neglected British noir Allan. As you so eloquently put it, in Brighton rock we “peer beneath the surface to the crustaceans underneath the pier, and see that the whole thing is rotten to the core”.
James Naremore’s in his book on film noir, More Than Night (UCLA, 1998), in a chapter titled “Modernism and Blood Melodrama”, explores the noir sensibility and the English literary critique of modernity found in the writings of Eliot, Joseph Conrad, and of course, Grahame Greene, in the first half of the last century. Naremore discusses Greene’s novel and the film the adaptation in considerable detail. Your review strongly resonates in this context, and a quote from Naremore when analysing the influence of French poetic realism on Greene, is relevant:
“Greene recognized that film was a mass medium, and he believed that highly charged poetic imagery should rise out of popular narrative. He insisted that ‘if you excite your audience first, you can put over what you will of horror, suffering, truth’. The logical formula for such effects, he observed, was ‘blood melodrama’. The problem in England was that ‘there never has been a school of popular English blood. We have been damned from the start by middle-class virtues, by gentlemen cracksmen and stolen plans and Mr. Wu’s’. The solution was ‘to go further back than this, dive below the polite level, to something nearer to common life’. If the British could only develop ‘the scream of cars in flight, all the old excitements at their simplest and most sure-fire, then we can begin—secretly, with low cunning—to develop our poetic drama… Our characters can develop from the level of The Spanish Tragedy toward a subtler, more thoughtful level’.”
Again, Tony, your comment is better than my piece…LOL…great stuff.
I was just going to say the same thing, what is greater, Allan’s review or Tony’s comment.
They’re both great as is this riveting film, which I’ve owned for several years on a Region 2 DVD.
Tony I think I will need to buy Naremore’s book. There have been too many reference from it.
I’m ashamed and embarrassed to admit that I have not seen this film. All of you gentleman have really made a strong case. I don’t have an all-Region player though, so what can I do?
ok, this is a riveting film, but apart from the insights imparted by you, Mr. Fish and Mr. D’Ambra, I will concede that what impressed me most was the way things played out at the beachside setting. It gave the film a special sense of realism and urgency.
Hi! Allan Fish,
Once again! Allan, a most excellant review of a film that I haven’t had the “pleasure” of watching.
Just like Bill H., I am also ashamed and embarrassed (Someone pleassse hand me a blushing smiley!) to admit that I have not watched director John Boulting’s Brighton Rock yet, but *no worries* it’s in the queue.
Tks, dcd
Bill, you need to get a multi region machine pronto, everyone should be multi region really. Not just Brighton Rock, you’re cutting yourself off from so much.
Dark City Dame, thanks again for your much appreciatiated and kind words.
This is an excellent British film that I saw last year. An underrated film noir entry that heats up more and more as the film unfolds.
This is a unique film noir. It may be the best of the British entries in this form, but admittedly there aren’t many. I know Mr. Fish gives a lot of credit to the Boultings, but Graham Greene and Terrence Rattigan’s screenplay is the vital component. Yes, it’s an atmospheric work that utilizes setting to great effect as others have stated.
Hey Joe, real nice comment there! I think Allan will appreciate that kind of insight.
Yes, several adherents have spoken of Greene’s contribution, though really Rattigan did much of the actual script work.
Some moderation please! I merely shared some information, while Allan has written a great review. His inspired sentence, which deserves repeating: “We peer beneath the surface to the crustaceans underneath the pier, and see that the whole thing is rotten to the core”, is haunting me, and I marvel at how beautifully it is constructed and how apt it is.
Talk about serendipity. I came across this article in The Guardian today by film writer, Andrew Pulver: Is Graham Greene the father of film noir?. Apparently Greene wrote an original script for a British crime thriller called The Green Cockatoo, released in 1937, which is hardly-ever screened and is available only from the British National Film Archive. Pulver requested a screening, and in his article
reports that the movie “has a similar [to film noir] commitment to the boiled-down essentials of the crime genre”. He also discusses these Greene noirs: The Third Man, Ministry of Fear, Brighton Rock, The Fallen Idol, and This Gun for Hire.
[...] Gun For Hire. Coincidentally, Allan Fish of Wonders in the Dark posted an excellent review of Brighton Rock [...]
Brighton Rock is one of my favorite Greene novels, but I can’t find a copy of this film version anywhere! It looks splendid.
I enjoyed the brief reference to Louis Malle’s Atlantic City…what a great and underrated film that is. I don’t make a trip to AC without thinking about it. –DHS
Thanks as always, Tony. Too kind. I’ll save the noir article for when I arrive Stateside as I have to head off to work in ten minutes and will be getting an early night tonight before flying.
welcome to WitD, David. Brighton Rock is only available on Region 2 UK (or French) DVD, but it has been for some time…
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brighton-Rock-Richard-Attenborough/dp/B000HEVTBS
Bon voyage Allan.
And I will read that Greene article later today Tony–that is really excellent stuff, and how particularly desirable right after Allan’s BRIGHTON ROCK review.
And yes, my deserving compliments to you for yesterday’s comments were in no way meant to diminish or slight the fact that Allan’s review was truly extraordinary. No doubt.
I’ve owned a VHS copy of this film for a number of years, but it had been about that long since I last watched it. So now I’ve watched it again, and I’m struck as to how dark and sinister this film truly is. Attenborough’s Pinky is probably one of the coldest, most frighteningly amoral hooligans ever conceived for the screen. Beautifully shot in a quintessentially noir manner, I envy whoever provided the frame grabs that accompany this post, my copy of the film is public domain and suffers by comparison. Every one of the performers in Brighton Rock is more than competent in their respective roles. I was thinking about Graham Greene’s Catholic sensibility when Pinky tried to manipulate Rose into committing suicide, and she resisted because it was a sin, and didn’t want to die knowing she’d be turned away from heaven. Young Rose, a naive, love-starved adolescent, no viewer wanted to see her die so that Pinky could live. And the caustic, callous comment from Pinky embedded in the grooves of the record Rose cherishes, mercifully skipping so that she misses hearing his true sentiments. Brilliant.
You are a real trooper Guy, and I am stunned that you have specnt so much time at our site making quality comments and reliving some timeless gems from the archives. Your entire description of Pinky and Rose is magisterial, and yes this film is indeed unforgettable. It is noirish indeed, as our friend Tony d’ambra enthusiastically declared above.
Guy, what can we do to leave comments at your site? is it all just looking?
Also, the Region 2 DVD of BRIGHTON ROCK is quite excellent in quality. Do you have a Region 2 player? I will send you a copy immediately if you do, and there’s no charge of course, not for the postage either. And if you want THUNDER ROCK (or anything else for that matter) I’ll include those too.
I’m sure Allan will comment to you tomorrow as well.
Ah, another review I missed! And another film I have never seen! This is egregiously unfair.
Are you there Alexander?
BEN BUTTON and DOUBT will soon be read. I am admittedly heartbroken at your reaction to BB, but we’ll sort things out.
Happy New Year my friend!!!!! We’ll have to get that copy of BRIGHTON ROCK to you!
Oh, well, thank you, Sam! And Happy New Year to you as well my friend!!!
And I could use Thunder Rock as well! I’m completely greedy when it comes to the cinema!!!
Sincerely, though, Happy New Year to you and yours and everyone else at Wonders in the Dark tonight!
THUNDER ROCK will indeed be added, that’s not being greedy, that’s being enthusiastic and passionate!!!!
Thanks, and the best always!
Sam,
My DVD player is region 1. I may be coming into some money in the not-too-distant future (out-of-court settlement), and when that happens I’ll be investing in an all-region player. And yes, if you’re feeling generous I’m not about to turn down your offer, if I’m unable to watch it now I look forward to it later. About my site, a modification and overhaul are long overdue. That’s coming in the not-too-distant future as well, many developments have taken place since my site was first presented on the net over a year and a half ago. For those who may be interested, prints that will be added to the site soon are as follows: Newton as Sykes and Guinness as Fagin from you-know-where (completed), Jean Gabin as Pepe le Moko (completed), Rififi (next in line), Mask of Dimitrios (Zachary Scott in his first film), Martita Hunt as Miss Havisham (to accompany Sykes and Fagin), and The Hands of Orlac (Conrad Veidt). For most of the past ten years my focus has been film noir, but more recently my intention’s been to branch out into related areas, notably German Expressionism and French Poetic Realism. I’m just so happy that there’s so much out there to explore, every time I turn around I see something or read about something that I was previously unaware of, and I have to pursue it. I know a few things about a few things, but I always hunger for more.
Happy New Year Alexander. And don’t worry about Sam, he’s always happier copying for other people than he is watching things himself which, at home, he hasn’t done since the invention of the wheel.
Guy: That sounds like a terrific modification is upcoming and I will be there to enjoy it when it happens. The Newton, Guiness, Gabin and Veidt additions are exciting and the recent foray into German Expressionism and French Poetic realism likewise. Your passion and enthusiasm is palpable sir.
Guy: My e mail address is …..TheFountain26@aol.com…..please e mail me your mailing address. Thanks.
Alexander: Allan and I saw 15 movies in the theatre during his 18 day stay, including last night’s 4 hour and 18 minute CHE. it’s tough watching stuff at home with that much time out, as Allan should understand.
LOL!
TCM has scheduled Brighton Rock for 8:00 PM (US Eastern) on Tuesday January 6, 2009.
I was lucky to catch this on TCM this evening.
As is almost always the case, the book was better than the film as it gave a more detailed “inside” view of the characters’ mindsets and fears.
That being said, this was an all around solid production and fairly faithful to the book (as it should be since Greene himself worked on the screenplay). There were a few details changed in some scenes (and of course the slight twist on the ending with Rose and the record) , but otherwise it was a very good translation.
Attenborough was especially good as Pinky.
As an aside, have you considered adding a “Search” widget to your sidebar for convenience?
My apologies! Disregard the aside in the previous comment. Lo and behold, a “search” option does appear on your sidebar.
David, you are on a roll, and your energy in writing and viewing is incomparable.
Again you give us fabuloous food for thought here. Thank you Sir!