BRIGHTON ROCK (1947)

[drednm]

Dug out my old copy of this film and was blown away by the performances and the film in general. From the novel by Graham Greene and directed by Jack Boulting, this film is as dark as any American noir film and boasts one of the great endings to any film I've seen. My copy is rather dark, but I think this one has been restored and available on UK sites.

Story of competing gangs in Brighton between the wars, with one gang (led by Richard Attenborough) being squeezed out by a bigger gang led by a Mediterranean type. The fights within Attenborough's gang don't help. One of the gang's victims briefly meets up with a blowsy singer (Hermione Baddeley) who gets suspicious and starts snooping around, but she's leaving Brighton soon since her "Dinky Doo" act is booked elsewhere. Meanwhile, Attenborough romances a naïve waitress (Carol Marsh) who may have some information he desperately needs, and then there's a corrupt lawyer (Harcourt Williams) who's getting cold feet and knows too much. The subplots all come together nicely.

Attenborough is excellent and as icy as any noir protagonist ever played by Burt Lancaster or Richard Widmark. Baddeley probably has the role of her career as the loud, vulgar singer who turns out to be the film's hero. Marsh is heartbreaking as the simple soul who never knows what's really going on. Along with Williams, co-stars include Wylie Watson, William Hartnell, Nigel Stock, Virginia Winter, Charles Goldner (as Colleoni), Alan Wheatley, and Constance Smith (as the club singer).

And the ending is a killer.

[boblipton]

I loved this film when I saw it and later read the novel. Brilliant, depressed writing by Greene.

Bob

[drednm]

I loved this film when I saw it and later read the novel. Brilliant, depressed writing by Greene.

Bob

Never read the novel. Filmed in 1947 and Brighton looked much as it did when I spent a week there in 1985.

[Henry Nicolella]

SPOILER ALERT

Graham Greene was a little annoyed by the broken record thing at the last scene but said that thinking people would realize that Rose would eventually move past the skip on the record and hear all of Pinky's terrible words.
Henry Nicolella