Plot: An ambitious young accountant plots to wed a wealthy factory owner's daughter despite falling in love with a married older woman.
Starring: Simone Signoret; Laurence Harvey; Heather Sears; Hermione Baddeley. Directed by Jack Clayton. Written by Neil Paterson, John Braine, Mordecai Richler. Cinematography by Freddie Francis. Music by Mario Nascimbene. Filmed in Halifax, Bradford, and Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
A much more effective take on the Angry Young Man aspect of Kitchen Sink dramas than Look Back in Anger. Joe Lampton (Laurence Harvey), despite his business acumen, is a working-class outsider. He’s constantly reminded of it throughout the film. He seeks to improve his lot in life by pursuing the boss’ daughter, the virginal Susan (Heather Sears) while at the same time, Joe is shagging the married but neglected and experienced Alice (Simone Signoret). Joe and Alice seem to be an ideal match, but Joe prefers Susan and what marriage to her would provide.
I’ve always liked Laurence Harvey. He had an “Uncomfortable-in-his-own-skin” persona that Patrick MacGoohan and Donald Pleasance also had.
Susan’s current beau, Jack Wales (John Westbrook; deliciously played) calls Joe “Sergeant.” Joe, who was a P.O.W. during the war, is jealous of Jack’s status, social class, and of his dating Susan. Joe’s even been outdone in the P.O.W. sweepstakes, as Jack escaped from a P.O.W. camp and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross!
The film takes place in 1947, but it could very well be 1957.
There’s a brief scene with a crying baby.
Future Persuaders actors Paul Whitsun-Jones and Darren Nesbitt make quick but memorable appearances.
I loved the scenes when Joe returns to his shitty hometown, which still looks bombed out and depressed. The actors, who played Joe's aunt and uncle give wonderful performances. Beatrice Varley as the aunt was especially good.
Freddie Francis’ cinematography makes effective use of the worn out cityscapes and he lends a Noirish look to the dark and wet streets as well as to the actors’ closeups. Is Kitchen Sink a subgenre of Film Noir? It sure feels like it sometimes.
The movie’s first hour is outstanding and moves along quickly, when Joe is establishing himself and the film “builds its world.” Things slow down a bit in the middle, when the career ambitions plot gives way to the romantic one, which is understandable, and since it is well acted by the leads. It gets a pass, though Harvey’s accent often drifts to territories unknown and back again, but since I’m not obsessive about that, I gave him a pass, too.
Laurence Harvey’s reaction to Signoret’s fate is well played. I appreciated the symbolism of his character being between the two tragedies of his life: facing the news of Signoret’s fate in front of him, while the seemingly innocuous poster featuring a baby is behind him, which is representative of Joe having gotten Susan pregnant and marrying her.
A powerful end to the film, though I could have done without composer Mario Nascimbene's loud, melodramatic cue.
A sequel, Life at the Top, was released in 1965. I suppose I'll have to see that one, too.
Academy Awards: Nominated for six and won two: Best Actress (Signoret) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Paterson). It was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director (Clayton), Best Actor (Harvey), and Best Supporting Actress (Baddeley). Baddeley's performance consisted of 2 minutes, 19 seconds of screen time, and it’s the shortest ever to be nominated for an acting Oscar.
Simone Signoret's Best Actress win may be the most forgotten of the 1950s; I've not known it to be among the most talked about by Oscar historians or classic film buffs.
Plot: A pregnant teenage girl must fend for herself when her mother remarries, leaving the girl with only a new male friend for support.
Starring Dora Bryan (Helen); Robert Stephens (Peter Smith); Rita Tushingham (Jo); Murray Melvin (Geoffrey Ingham); Paul Danquah (Jimmy). Directed by Tony Richardson Written by Shelagh Delaney; Tony Richardson. Cinematography by Walter Lassally Music by John Addison Filmed in Salford, Manchester; Blackpool, Lancashire; Castleton, Derbyshire.
As far as I know, the film bears no relation to the hugely popular song of the same name.
It's incredible that this was Rita Tushingham's film debut; she's wonderful in this. Tushingham, Bryan, Melvin, and Danquah all give excellent performances. Only Robert Stephens’ loutish drunkard character is one note, though he provides comic relief throughout the proceedings.
Dora Bryan (Helen) is outstanding. Helen is described as being forty years old, but looks more like a “well-preserved sixty”, which isn’t accurate at all! She’s trying to be a good mother while at the same time trying to latch hold of the loutish Peter Smith (Robert Stephens) and finally have something more than a fleeting relationship.
Murray Melvin’s Geoffrey character is openly gay, and no attempt is made to coyly state otherwise. Geoff is no stereotype. He is a thoughtful, mature, and even philosophical character. He is also lonely and desperate for love. I don’t think there is any other character from this era like him. His characterization in the film makes me wonder how much it differs from the play. Tony Richardson co-wrote the screenplay with the original author, Smiths/Morrissey influence and icon Shelagh Delaney.
There are lots of dreary, dirty, muddy, and smokey English landscapes and buildings! so naturally I loved every frame of it. Director Richardson’s go-to cinematographer, Walter Lassally, once again contributes a vivid photographic backdrop to the story. Gritty brick buildings, sunlight reflected in mud puddles, and Guy Fawkes Night cinders are among Lassally’s bag of tricks.
There’s a lively, atmospheric scene filmed on location in Blackpool, so one really gets that “British seaside” feeling. The characters take in a saucy female Dracula sketch which boasts a brief flash of nudity.
An absolutely poetic sequence is of Jimmy’s ship setting sail as Jo watches. It’s filmic poetry, and is both beautifully lit and shot.
Jo pays £30 a week (that's £565 a week in 2024) for her decrepit, yet enormous loft flat. UK TV stalwart Michael Bilton has a brief part as Jo’s landlord.
In Tony Richardson’s The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, the film is cranked in some scenes for comedic effect. In A Taste of Honey, the one flaw in an otherwise perfect film is making John Addison’s score the comic relief. There are also cues that attempt to convey a youthful whimsy. There are a few scenes, especially at the film’s opening, that would have been better served with no score at all. However, the scoring tone improves as the story progresses.
A Taste of Honey is a mature masterpiece, and is especially so for having been released in 1961. The film would have been too much for 1961 American audiences to handle. A Taste of Honey deals with everything from pregnancy outside of marriage, interracial relationships, homosexuality, and promiscuity, yet it does so without ever being preachy or heavy handed. The characters are engaging and the technical expertise makes for a memorable and rewarding viewing experience.
Year of the North: 1960 from the Beeb's Timeshift series.
I won't watch it until I've seen Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, which figures prominently in the first half of this doc.
"Documentary which sets out to show that the 1960s - the most creative decade of the 20th century [sic] - began not in swinging London but in smokestack northern England. It was from there that a new kind of voice was heard - cocky and defiant, working class, affluent, stroppy and sexy.
Novelist Andrew Martin explores how in 1960 the north asserted itself, came out of the closet artistically speaking, abandoned the cloth cap stereotype and in the process liberated itself and Britain as a whole. The story of how the north went from being the economic engine room of the country to cultural powerhouse is told through the work of northern writers such as Alan Sillitoe, Shelagh Delaney, Stan Barstow and Tony Warren. Thanks to their lead in conspicuously kicking over the old traces, by the end of 1960 if you wanted iconoclasm, humour, style and music, you definitely looked to the north."
Whether intentional or not, The Animals' 1965 song "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" could be a Kitchen Sink drama's theme song. Lyrics about pretty young girls dying before their time, sons watching their fathers getting old and working themselves to death. It all fits.
Barry scored Four in the Morning gratis as a favor to the director. The production could only afford a minimal number of musicians. In interviews Barry seemed to have mixed feelings about the score, lamenting not so much the small ensemble but not being able to switch out musicians depending on the scene.
Barry scored Four in the Morning gratis as a favor to the director. The production could only afford a minimal number of musicians. In interviews Barry seemed to have mixed feelings about the score, lamenting not so much the small ensemble but not being able to switch out musicians depending on the scene.
As previously noted, one of the recurring themes in Kitchen Sink dramas is the backdrop of old buildings being replaced by tower blocks. Here are a couple of videos that discuss the changes and what the people living in the new housing thought about it.
The Beeb's Man Alive (1968)- "How Compulsory Purchase Reshaped a Town":
"Like many local authorities across the country, Oldham Borough Council used compulsory purchase powers when redeveloping and modernising areas of the town in the 1960s. Man Alive spoke to some of those affected, including Mrs Quinlan, who faced losing her family home, and gentlemen's outfitter Danny Corallo, who had to relocate his business."
The outfitter fellow in this video expresses himself brilliantly; he has every reason to be an angry young man:
London Council Estates: Where the Houses Used to Be (1971):
"They're building flats where the houses used to be". 'Flat' might as well be a dirty word in this sobering documentary on Battersea's Doddington and Rollo estate - a vast, high-density development built by Wandsworth Borough Council in the late 60s to house some 7,000 people. Refreshingly, the commentary comes entirely from the mouths of the residents themselves: young mothers, working fathers, elderly women, teenagers and children, who discuss their experiences, particularly the issue of loneliness and isolation.
The film was made in 1971 when the estate was still being developed. Just one year later, the tenants' association complained that Doddington was rapidly deteriorating. As one young female resident puts it: "I don't think I'd give these places 20 or 30 years before they become slums. I think I'd give it two or three years, the way they're going at the moment".
As Johnny speight said - writer of Till death us do part ..." They knocked down my old house...and put up a slum"
There's a wonderful reference to it in the Till Death Us film you haven't watched yet, as dandy n Una move to a new town with flats n roundabouts, and Alf stays behind, the last house left. Even his local pub sells up lol
As Johnny speight said - writer of Till death us do part ..." They knocked down my old house...and put up a slum"
There's a wonderful reference to it in the Till Death Us film you haven't watched yet, as dandy n Una move to a new town with flats n roundabouts, and Alf stays behind, the last house left. Even his local pub sells up lol
Looking forward to it, Bill. I'll watch it today and add it here once I scratch out my review.
Hey, Jim, I'm getting worried about your state of mind ... watching all these British kitchen-sink offerings must be having some effect.
So, to lighten the mood, but still keep your interest in this theme (especially this latest one re: knocking down the old back-to-backs et al. so as to build modern high-rise apartments) try some of the best ever UK TV:
The Beiderbecke Affair (1985) - 6x 1hr episodes (less adverts) - as the storyline makes numerous references to the changing landscape with the so-called improvements (They knocked down my flat to build a motorway) featuring prominently (along with big business seeking to prevent the small guy make a few pennies).
Superb acting - a great story - wonderful music ... and lots of laughs.
You'll also get to see lots of scenes in a secondary (comprehensive) school which to my wife, a retired teacher who spent her career in such establishments, hits the mark time and again, especially in the background as the main characters walk/talk.
Two follow-up series: ... Tapes (1987) and ... Connection (1988) are wonderful, too, if not quite at the same top standard.
Note: The film poster references John Lennon's album cover for Two Virgins (Look it up at your own risk)
Plot: The film version of Till Death Us Do Part tells the story of Alf Garnett and his family living through the London Blitz and then years later when his neighborhood is to be razed.
Starring: Warren Mitchell (Alf Garnett); Dandy Nichols (Else Garnett); Anthony Booth (Mike Rawlins); Una Stubbs (Rita Garnett).
Directed by Norman Cohen. Written by Johnny Speight. Cinematography by Harry Waxman. Music by Wilfred Burns Filmed in Stepney, London and Shepperton Studios, Surrey.
Till Death Us Do Part is divided into two parts: World War II and the (then) present day. The direction and camerawork are strangely observational and detached from the actors and the action.
The first half of the film is Alf Garnett struggling to get through the World War II years. He’s wrong about everything. He underestimates the German armed forces before the war begins, during the London blitz he fails to show what used to be called the stiff upper lip, instead panicking and behaving like an insufferable lout while sheltering in the underground, which served as a bomb shelter.
Kitchen Sink moments: Pub singalong, crying baby, shabby, shitty housing, bathtub in the kitchen, outhouse, and of course, tower blocks…all present and accounted for.
The second half takes the narrative to 1966. Alf and Mike are present at the World Cup final, the footage of which is in brilliant color. The cinematography and color process used for both the match footage and the film are blended seamlessly. In fact, the entire movie, despite the drab Kitchen Sink Drama surroundings that is Alf’s house, is miles ahead of the drab Beeb video of the Till Death Us Do Part TV series.
Alf is also a lousy father. He rants at the infant Rita’s crying, and even steals milk from her for his tea. Years later, he wrecks Rita’s wedding with his drunken and violent behavior, accidentally dumping a pint of brown ale on her wedding dress and nearly getting into a brawl with Mike’s father.
I found Alf to be completely unsympathetic! That is, up until the last 20 or so minutes of the film’s 1 hour and 40 minute runtime, when he learns his entire neighborhood is going to be torn down–it is at that point that I completely empathize with Alf Garnett. His angry ravings at the bureaucrats assessing the land value of the property are sad and pathetic because we know he is utterly powerless to stop the compulsory purchase order that will destroy his entire neighborhood.
It was puzzling to see Else, Rita, and Mike’s amused reaction to Alf’s misery. They appeared to be fine with being relocated. Worst of all, they took a perverse delight in seeing how miserable being forced out of his home made Alf! Perhaps it’s because the house was Alf’s and not theirs.
The final scene showing the grungy tower blocks was a bit surprising because even by 1969 those tower blocks looked to already be falling apart.
Look fast for Frank Thornton as a cold-blooded land assessor and Geoffrey Hughes as Mike’s brother(!). Brian Blessed has little effect as an army sergeant character.
An interesting take on the series, but I wish Alf were more sympathetic, though. It also didn’t help that Else, probably my favorite character, was also unsympathetic, but I really can’t stand Mike and Rita!
5?? Your ratings are as twisted n fucked up as Musicmad's!!! Lol.
It deserves 7.5 for the chatting while sitting in the outdoor loo and another point for the world cup final where he shouts to the Russian linesman "Remember Stalingrad!!"
5?? Your ratings are as twisted n fucked up as Musicmad's!!! Lol.
It deserves 7.5 for the chatting while sitting in the outdoor loo and another point for the world cup final where he shouts to the Russian linesman "Remember Stalingrad!!"
Those were my two favorite things about the entire film! The Stalingrad line was the biggest laugh of all!
And now we know where Monkee Mickey Dolenz got the inspiration for his song "Randy Scouse Git", though the song has no connection to the 5 out of 10 film.
This segment shows the contrast between the old, crumbling Wigan and the Brutalist architecture that 1960s architects imposed upon it. There is also a dire folk singer, but at least his heart is in the right place.
