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)

10 Rillington Place. A tribute to Richard Attenborough.

Director:	Richard Fleischer
Country:	UK
Year:	1971
Running Time:	111 mins
Principle Cast:	Richard Attenborough	John Reginald Christie
	Judy Geeson	Beryl Evens
	John Hurt	Timothy John Evens
	Pat Heywood	Mrs Ethel Christie
	Andre Morell	Judge Lewis

I reproduce this ramble as a tribute to to a great British actor and director who passed away on Sunday (24th August 2014) aged 90,  Richard Attenborough.

Richard Fleischer made only a handful of British films, by far the best was 10 Rillington Place shown at 2013's EIFF as part of the retrospective, Fantastic Voyages: The Films of Richard Fleischer.  The story begins in 1947. We witness ‘Reg’ Christie murder a women in a drab ground floor kitchen in a run down 3-story house in Rillington Place Ladbroke Grove West London. He renders her unconscious with a homemade gassing device, struggles her and buries her in the garden of the house where we can’t help but notice the remains of a previous murder. We move on 5 years to 1949 and a family has moved into the top floor of the house, the illiterate lorry driver Timothy Evans, and his wife Beryl and their infant daughter Geraldine. When Beryl discovers she is pregnant again she asked Christie, who tells her he assisted a Doctor and knows how to perform abortions, for help with a termination. Based on the book, Ten Rillington Place by Ludovic Kennedy and adapted for the screen by Clive Exton it tells the true story of a grave miscarriage of justice involving Timothy Evans.

John Reginald Christie.

During the introduction to the film we were informed that the print we were about to watch was direct from the Sony vaults in California in the USA and had not been seen for many years. We were also told that in 1954 Rillington Place was renamed Ruston Place because of the notoriety that the court case had brought to the street. The house was still occupied in 1970 and the three families that were living there at this time refused to allow the filming to take place, so an empty property, number 7, was used instead. The houses and the street were eventually demolished and the area has changed completely.

Timothy Evans.

In an interview with the Times newspaper in 1970 Richard Attenborough spoke about the role of Christie and was quoted as saying ‘I do not like playing the part, but I accepted it at once without seeing the script. I have never felt so totally involved in any part as this. It is a most devastating statement on capital punishment’ His role in this film is probably one of the best in a long and distinguished career. The fresh-faced John Hurt, who plays Evans, was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. The movie has lost none of its creepy atmospherics and 1940 period detail is spot on, you can almost smell the pealing wallpaper and the rotten plasterwork. This is, I must admit, the first time I had seen the film and most confess it was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Dancing with Crime.

My main interest in this well paced British crime drama was that it was Dirk Bogarde first real feature film. The only time he had been on screen previously was in a 1937 George Formby comedy caper called Come on George in which he played an extra. Mind you although he had a very small speaking part as a police radio operative towards the end of the 1947 film, you don’t get a full facial shot, but with the voice and profile there’s no mistaking him.  

 

Jill and Ted report their suspicions to the police.

Although a fairly predictable crime drama and yes the fisticuffs could have been a little more realistic, it’s quite a enjoyable wee movie which stars real life husband and wife, Richard Attenborough and the fresh faced Sheila Sim (they married in 1945) who portray a young engaged couple trying to survive in the East End of London amongst black marketeers and rationing. Attenborough is Ted Peters trying to scape an honest living driving his cab. But Teds wartime mate Dave Robinson, credited as Bill Rowbotham but now better known as Bill Owen, is not quite so bothered where his money comes from and does odd jobs for a local gangster who along with his associate work out of an office above the local Palais de Danse. One evening Ted drops wide boy Dave off at the dance hall and then pops in the pub for a pint and sandwich but when he goes back to pick up his cab finds Dave dead in the back of the vehicle with a couple of bullet holes in him!  As normal with this type of movie the police are clueless. So Ted sets out to investigate the two dangerous villains, Gregory (Barry Jones) and Baker (Barry K. Barnes), who use the Palais as cover for their black marketeering. Fiancée Joy Goodhall gets a job as a hostess helped by another of the dancing girls Annette, played by an uncredited Diana Dors in only her second screen role, and are able to keep a close eye on the pair. As you would expect things soon hot up for Jill and Ted.

 

Annette earns her living at the Palais de Danse....

Made at a time when Fish and Chips were known as a fish supper even in London and not just in Scotland! The film did not receive many complimentary reviews when it was released on the 25^th June 1947 but time has been kind to it and now it can be viewed as a film made at the end of WW2 when budgets would have been non-existent and rationing and black marketeering for real.  The strength of this wee movie is in the enthusiasm of its two main stars, Attenborough and his young wife, who put you in mind of the Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five, as a sort of crime fighting two.

 

.... so is in a good position to help our fearless two. 

The director was John Paddy Carstairs who was best known for steering funny man Norman Wisdom to massive box office success through half a dozen undemanding comedies. The original story was by Peter Fraser with a screenplay by our old friend Brock Williams and the DOP was Reginald Wyer whose career spanned over thirty years including such fair as The Man in the Back Seat (1961) and Violent Playground (1958). Made at Cromwell Studios in Southall West London.

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.