Brighton Rock

Stumbled on to this movie and can not believe I have not seen it before. A true classic. I cant get enough of these. The writing, characters, sets, costume, the plot is gripping and has depth.

If you like classic gangster-psychology films like Little Caesar and The Public Enemy, you will probably enjoy this original film adaptation of Graham Greenes novel set in crumbling 1930s Brighton. The recent remake transplanted the story to the 60s and changed quite a few more details; I think this original is better, and it regularly makes lists of top British films as well. The main character is a psychopathic teenage gangster named Pinkie (played by a very young Richard Attenborough), and he is truly menacing to the point where he can practically scare people to death. When a newspaperman on assignment to Brighton runs afoul of Pinkies mob and later turns up dead, a blowzy boardwalk performer, Ida (Hermione Baddeley) is convinced that Pinkie killed him and sets out to prove it and see justice done. Meanwhile, Pinkie is romancing a very young and naive waitress, Rose, who also happens to be a witness, and Ida becomes concerned with protecting her as well. Rose, of course, is the classic good girl who thinks she can help save a very bad guy just by loving him enough, and even if she cant save him, shes willing to go to the ends of the earth and die trying. Will Rose wise up and escape in one piece? Will Pinkie have a last-minute redemption through the power of love? Will Ida succeed in getting the cops to take an interest before Rose and/or herself end up dead? Oddly, theres not as much suspense to all of this as youd expect, even if you havent read Greenes book and dont know how its going to turn out (although if you have read the book, the films ending differs from it slightly - just enough to be interesting in its own right). Perhaps the lack of thrills is partly due to liberal use of Catholic symbology of heaven, hell (represented by fire), death, and other holy allusions (another witness is a blind man being led by a little girl) signifying that in the end, everybody is bound to get the reward they deserve, and the only question is how theyre going to get there. Its still a good, solid, well-made and well-acted film, and the emphasis on Roses Catholicism is in keeping with Greenes work. Also wonderful to see Baddeley in a long meaty role, sort of like a younger brash Jessica Fletcher, rather than her usual character roles as a maid or neighbor or whatnot. She was one heck of an actress. Its too bad that in her era, there werent tons of leading roles for chubby fortyish ladies. Overall, I recommend this version. Its so awesome, I have no idea why someone felt a need to remake it. About my only complaint is that the characters accents and slang can be a little hard for Americans to understand - you need to know that a blower means the telephone, for instance. But not too far removed from similarly slang-ridden US vintage gangster films.

Poorly written. Attenborough good. But not a credible story.

Richard Attenborough is sensational as a psychotic gangster. Bright Rocks still rocks after almost 70 years.

Complex, disturbing noir character study/thriller about a 17 year old baby-faced gang leader named `Pinky, played by the director-to-be Richard Attenborough in an astonishing performance. Based on a Graham Greene novel, and co-written by Green and Terrence Rattigan (The Browning Version, The Winslow Boy), Pinky is a tremendously complex character, a sociopath to be sure, but one with a heart still beating somewhere deep down inside. Tortured by his Catholic upbringing, and repressed sexually, he vents his teen angst in violence that becomes increasingly uncontrollable, while finding his heart touched in spite of himself by a girl he marries ostensibly just to keep her from giving evidence against him. This is a tough picture, no Hollywood softened edges here. And arguably one of the better gangster films ever made.

I had to watch this after reading Lynn Truss’s vastly entertaining novel, “A Shot in the Dark,” which refers to this movie and the book upon which it is based. I’m not usually a fan of movies about punk gangs, but I did enjoy this, especially the performance of Hermione Baddeley playing the sort of female character never allowed in American movies. She’s middle-aged, loud, determined and smart as can be. She’s a force to be reckoned with. Carol Marsh is also good as the naïve and trusting Rose, the opposite of Baddeley’s character. Richard Attenborough shifts his eyes, half closes them and opens them widely, which passes for great acting among some people.

Great movie, dark and twisted. Would recommend to anyone wanting to experience a classic story, very well done. Great use of shadows to convey the darkness of the storyline.

Attenborough is truly scary in this story. Unemotional thug who abhors feelings of any kind. Carol Marsh is absolutely outstanding as the naive waitress.

`Brighton Rock is essentially a tale of a teenage gangster, Pinkie Brown, and his attempts to silence a potential witness, Rose, to a crime. John Boulting (Thunder Rock, 1942; Im All Right Jack, 1959) directed it in 1947 and was producer by his twin brother Roy. The screenplay was adapted from the Graham Greene novel of the same name by Terence Rattigan. There are significant differences at the ending of the film in relation to the novel (the book is more brutal) but I think that it takes nothing away from the film or the book. Due to BBFC rules at the time some changes had to made to the intended ending (the record scene) of the film because they wanted it to have a happy ending, which I think in retrospect made it better. The only feature really missing is the strength of character development one could only expect from a novel. However saying all that, the adaptation is excellent. `Brighton Rock featured two brilliant performances from Richard Attenborough (In Which We Serve, 1942; A Matter Of Life And Death, 1946) as Pinkie and Carol Marsh as Rose. Richards performance is a career highlight for him, which could be regarded as the emergence of the `angry young man in British cinema, but it was Carols performance that I really loved. Her performance of innocence is something we so rarely see in modern cinema that it is remarkably refreshing to watch. One thing worth pointing out though is that Rose in the novel was not quite as pretty and we see more of her family life and the possible reason for her attachment to Pinkie. Carol Marsh never made many other significant films that I feel its a bit of a shame because I think weve missed something there. I place her performance alongside Dorothy Malones bit part in `The Big Sleep (1946) who we also never saw enough of sadly. Cinematography on `Brighton Rock was by Gilbert Taylor who would later work on films such as `Repulsion (Polanski, 1965) `Dr Strangelove (Kubrick, 1964) and the much loved `Star Wars (Lucas, 1977). Other films adapted from Graham Greene novels worth watching are `This Gun For Hire (Tuttle, 1942) which has a similar theme and the excellent `The Third Man (Reed, 1949). I loved this film and I loved the novel and I recommend both to you. `Brighton Rock is ranked No.15 in the BFI Top 100 British Films. I cant believe this is not available on Region 1 DVD yet. Get it on Region 2.