Showing:
BBC TWO, Sunday August 12, 11.55am
Synopsis:
(1939) Veteran north-eastern miner Bob Fenwick leads a strike over safety standards at the Neptune Colliery. Meanwhile his son, David, attempts to make his own way in the world.
Read the full synopsis on BFI Screenonline.
Cast:
- Michael Redgrave (David Fenwick)
- Margaret Lockwood (Jenny Sunley)
- Emlyn Williams (Joe Gowlan)
- Nancy Price (Martha Fenwick)
- Edward Rigby (Robert Fenwick)
- Allan Jeayes (Richard Barras)
- Cecil Parker (Stanley Willington)
Full cast and credits on BFI Screenonline.
Analysis:
Soon after its publication in 1935, a film of A.J. Cronin's novel The Stars Look Down was proposed by producer Max Schach, though its treatment of industrial relations in the mines made it an unlikely candidate for the censors' approval.
The project collapsed with Schach's finances, to be resurrected by the distributors Grand National, with Carol Reed as director. The budget was fixed at an enormous £100,000, partly spent on location shooting in Cumberland and elaborate studio recreations.
Cronin's 700 pages of social observation, plot clichés, and mine nationalisation propaganda gave Reed his first stab at serious subject-matter. Critics were surprised to find sober tragedy in a drama released in January 1940; though there are limits to the film's maturity.
Cronin's novel was considerably truncated and softened: Censor approval must have been helped by the script's negative treatment of the miners' union and the mine owner's readiness for redemption.
Read the full analysis on BFI Screenonline.
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