Heavens Above.

Some critics believe that the last of the Boulting Brothers social satires Heavens Above (1963) deserves to be remembered because of Peter Sellers lead performance as the sincere Church of England clergyman who gets sent due to a clerical (no pun intended) error to the wrong parish and I would not disagree, but there is far more to the film than just Sellers award winning performance. It’s a clever and humorous satire on religion, the establishment and the working class and was called the Boulting Brothers most ‘human picture’ [1].

 

Sellers at his best.

The film is set in a small country town called Orbiston Parva that is over lorded by the Despard family, rich local landowners and proprietors of a factory that provides local employment. When we first meet the Rev. John Smallwood (Sellers) he is in a prison cell having been trussed up by a convict he has recommended to be made a trustee. The prison authorities are not unhappy to see their prison chaplain moved to another parish. But we soon discover that there are two John Smallwood’s and the wrong one gets sent to Orbiston Parva where chaos ensues.  Firstly he appoints a West Indian dustman as his churchwarden and then to make matters worse he moves the very large and unruly Smith family into the Manse.  Following these two actions things can only get worse and believe me they do.

 

Eric Skyes with a young future Small Faces star - Steve Marriott.

This British movie has an exceptional cast that’s far to long to list here but I would give special mention to Eric Skyes as head of the Smith family, Cecil Parker as the Archdeacon who recommends Smallwood for the Orbiston Parva parish and lives to regret it, Brock Peters as the churchwarden and Ian Carmichael in a guest appearance as the other Smallwood.  The films script was written by Frank Harvey, who was also responsible for writing the scripts for I’m All Right Jack (1959) and Privates Progress (1956), and based on an idea by Malcolm Muggeridge who also has a cameo role in the film.  

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[1] Cecil Wilson Daily Mail 22 May 1963

Privates Progress.

Stanley Windrush may be a familiar name for the lovers of 1950’s British cinema as the actor Ian Carmichael famously played the character twice. In 1959 he played Windrush in the Boulting Brothers movie I’m All Right Jack a satire on British industrial relations in the 1950’s. This movie was in fact a sequel to an earlier Boulting Brothers movie Privates Progress (1956) another satire but this time a light-hearted look at British army life during WW2. It included actors and characters found in the later film including Carmichael first portrayal of the unfortunate misfit Windrush that turned out to give the actor his first big break in movies.

 

What the English call a silly ass. 

Both these films had a satirical capability that was in many ways unique to the brothers and were ‘irreverently critical of British institutions’[1] The movie opens in 1942 and we find Stanley Windrush at University in the middle of his studies when he is called up to join the army to do his bit for the war effort. Our Stanley is of course an academic who comes from a well to do family and is assumed to be officer material. But Stanley turns out to be particularly incompetent, what the English would call a ‘silly ass’; consequently he does not survive the officer-training course at Gravestone Barracks. Placed in a far flung holding unit as a regular private where he can do no harm amongst fellow soldiers who display immense energy and resourcefulness avoiding any work. Its there he befriends Private Cox (Richard Attenborough) a particularly crafty layabout. Both men are drafted into a division commanded by Stanley’s uncle, Brigadier Tracepurcel (Dennis Price) a rather untrustworthy individual who has been tasked with uplifting a hoard of looted treasures and works of art from behind German lines. Stanley’s main job is to interpret but there is one slight problem his training at the interpreters school has been in Japanese and not German!

Various British actors grace the screen. 

Although the film was the second most popular movie at the British box office in 1957 it is not as hard hitting satirically as I’m All Right Jack.  It has a weak story line that is only saved from obscurity by its cast. As well as great performances from Carmichael, Attenborough and Price we get Terry Thomas as Major Hitchcock commander of the holding unit and an array of classic British actors including Peter Jones of The Rag Trade fame, William Hartnell known for his TV appearances as the first Doctor Who and in The Army Game as well as his roles in classic British feature film’s like Brighton Rock (1947) and Hell Drivers (1957). There is also an uncredited appearance, albeit brief of Christopher Lee just before his Hammer Horror career took off.

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[1] Sixties British Cinema - Robert Murphy

Brighton Rock 1947.

According to Grahame Green, Richard Attenborough’s portrayal of the 17-year-old razor-wielding thug Pinkie Brown is the best depiction of any of the characters in his novels. When you see the film Brighton Rock (1947) you will understand why. This is a mesmerising performance and totally believable and Attenborough excels himself and will always be remembered for this particular role although as an actor he was in many other films including Dancing with Crime (1947), I’m All Right Jack (1959) and 10 Rillington Place (1971). But this role was to my mind the template for many other sociopathic gangsters that we still come across in modern cinema. Attenborough’s Pinkie Brown was a scary creation that despite the evil bravado was actually deeply vulnerable but almost devoid of human feelings and emotion.

 

Hail Mary full of grace....

It was Greene and Terence Rattigan that wrote the screenplay adapted from Greene’s 1938 novel of the same name. Richard Attenborough had starred in the original stage version at the Garrick Theatre in 1944 opposite Dulcie Gray as the naïve Rose, the modest waitress who becomes Pinkie’s girlfriend and then his wife, a role played by the Carol Marsh in this, the first screen adaptation[1].

Cubbit, Dallow and Pinkie discuss strategy. 

The drama is centred on Brighton, East Sussex on the South Coast of England between the wars. Amongst the façade of tourism and the Regency Terraces there is another Brighton, one of dark alleyways and slum housing where you will find the race-track gangs who fought one another with cut throat razors in order to control the tracks. One such gang was lead by Kite who because of an article written by newspaper reporter Fred Hale (Alan Wheatley) was killed by a rival gang. The young Pinkie Brown takes over leadership of the gang backed up by his second in command Dallow (William Hartnall whose suit you will not easily forget) Cubit (Nigel Stock) and the aging Spicer (Wylie Wilson). The gang set out to avenge the death of Kite by killing Hale and making it seem like a heart attack or perhaps a suicide. The local ‘bogies’ are happy to close the case and if it were not for the persistence of Ida Arnold (Hermione Bradley) who believes that Fred Hale has been murdered, nothing would have been done to investigate the matter further.

 

Rose - the naive waitress.

As well as the cast I have already mentioned some great British character actors, including Harcourt Williams as the crocked lawyer Prewitt, populated the film all of which were in top form. It was directed by John Boulting with his identical twin Roy producing. Location shooting took place in and around Brighton with the cinematography in the capable hands of Harry Waxman who went on to win a prize for his work on the 1959 social problem film Sapphire. The mood music was by Hans May.  All-in-all a terrific movie, if you have never seen it I would suggest you put that right immediately if for no other reason than to see an unforgettable performance from one of Britain’s greatest cinematic assets who will be greatly missed but as with all the best actors and directors leave’s us a body of work to appreciate for all time.

It it wasn't for Ida Arnold........

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[1] The second adaptation Brighton Rock (2010)

Lucky Jim

Kingsley Amis's first novel was published in 1954. It was entitled Lucky Jim, and like the novel Patrick Campbell screenplay told of the exploits of one James Dixon, a reluctant history lecturer at an unnamed provincial English university. The novel tells about a contemporary young man and how he makes his way in life in a post war world that combines new and declining attitudes. But the Boulting Brothers film adaptation does not adequately deal with the subject of upward social mobility in the case of Jim Dixon, of a lower middle class character coming to terms with the upper class who refuse to recognise a person of equal intelligence but without the advantages of the British higher class system.

Amis's novel may have been written as a modern social comedy but as Lindsay Anderson opined about the film "the original comedy has been transformed into a conventional farce"[1]. He also noted that the characters had been flattened, simplified and vulgarized, and that the story had been wholly abstracted from reality and that Jim Dixon who can't do right for doing wrong (in the typical form of actor Ian Carmichael) had been stripped of all personality and turned into a farcical unprofessional figure: the college idiot. Similar to, what Lindsay calls the 'George Formby formula' including the speeded up car chase and getting the girl as his just reward as if life’s success can be judged by the quality of the women on your arm!

 

Jim Dixon with his reward for being a twit!!

Made at the MGM Studios at Boreham Wood, Lucky Jim (1957) is tad predictable and full of textbook upper class types who are so wet they stand in their own puddles. There is a certain humour although it mainly involves a large ugly dog that sings along to some dreadful chamber music. Thankfully the film was made on the eve of a revolution in British filmmaking that would help save us from such stupid daft films like this one.

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[1] New Statesman 5^th October 1957.

I'm All Right Jack.

John Boulting and his twin brother were an inseparable director-producer team throughout their careers. Inseparable and interchangeable, to the extent whereby they would alternate on films, one taking on production, the other direction and then swapping for their next feature. Their films became known as simply those of ‘the Boulting Brothers’ thinking of them as a whole rather than two separate talents. Together the Boultings brought biting and hysterical satire to the screen. Their comedies of the late 1950’s are renowned for their casting of some of the great comedy acting talents of a generation: Ian Carmichael, Richard Attenborough, Terry Thomas, Irene Handl, Peter Sellers and others. The films took swipes at this country’s ‘great’ institutions, mocking the Church, the Army, and Civil Service and in the widely acclaimed and still highly regarded, I’m All Right Jack (1959) the unions and the upper classes.[1]

It's a lock-out!!!

The film opens with a voice over that tells us that ‘Industry, with tremendous opportunities for the young man, industry, spurred by the march of science in all directions, was working at high pressure to supply those vital needs for which people had hungered for so long’ Stanley Windrush (Ian Carmichael) believes the propaganda so after leaving the army and finishing his university education he decides to go for a middle management job in ‘industry’. At first he attends an interview at a factory that produces ‘Detto the new black whitener’ washing powder and then at another that makes ‘Num Yum the chewy chocolate bar’ both without a great deal of success. Stanley’s uncle, Bertram Tracepurcel (Dennis Price) and ex army comrade Sidney DeVere Cox (Richard Attenborough) persuade him to except a blue-collar position at uncles missile factory that has a rush order for a corrupt foreign power. Unbeknown to the naive Stanley his uncle is using him to stir industrial unrest in order to trigger a strike. When this happens Bertram will use it as an excuse to pass the lucrative order to his shady partner Cox at an increased cost to be split between them and their Arab partner. Poor Stanley finds himself up against the might of the union in the form of shop steward Fred Kite!

Stanley gives it all away.

Peter Sellers made the character of Fred Kite his very own, giving it depth and originality and making him seem a real person, admittedly a little over the top, but absolutely real. It is alleged that Kite was based on a real shop steward based at Shepperton Studios where the film was made. It was this memorable performance that changed Sellers from a great comedic actor into a great character actor and won him the British Academy Award for Best British Actor of 1959.

Fred has a quick chat with the management.

Late 1950’s saw much in the way of industrial strife in Britain because of management’s, and the Tory government’s, uncaring attitude towards the ‘workers’ (Another example of some things never changing.) It’s was against this background that the Boultings produced a film, set in the prosperous South East of England, about work ethics and taking sideswipes at both the Unions and the establishment, the film was one of the most popular releases of 1959. Looking back at this film today confirms that it was one of the great British satire’s and still provokes a degree of left-wing hostility for showing the working class as being lazy, greedy, not prepared to carry out a decent days work for a decent days pay. But equally it highlights the corrupt and unscrupulous shenanigans of management and their lapdogs.

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[1] Shepperton Studios History.