Synopsis
Set in contemporary Bethnal Green in east London, A Place to Go charts the dramatic changes that were happening in the lives of the British working-class at the time.
A Place to Go
1963 Directed by Basil Dearden
Cast
Releases by Date
Theatrical
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UK
Releases by Country
UK
01 Jul 1963
- Theatrical
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You Have 90 Minutes To Comply 2: Brevity Rules
Not one of the better Basil Dearden films I've seen, mainly perhaps because it never seems completely sure of what it wants to be.
It has a jokey tone to it that suggests it could be a comedy, especially during the early part of Rita Tushingham's courtship with Michael Sarne, which is played mostly for laughs. There's also a very strange court hearing that was both unbelievable and funnier than it should have been. In the middle it becomes more or less a kitchen sink drama, but also seems to have a noir-ish intention to it when it turns to crime for a pretty good robbery scene.
As such it lacks…
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Basil Dearden directs this British crime drama. Ricky finds that the East End that he knows and loves is being demolished and there seems just one possible solution. Starring Bernard Lee, Rita Tushingham and Michael Sarne.
The story concerns a London workhand’s (Bernard Lee) son (Michael Sarne), who spots a desolate girlfriend (Rita Tushingham) and goes to unimportant crime for a group.
Michael Sarne gives a good performance in his role as Ricky, the man who is horrified to find out what is happening to the East End and turns to crime to see if he can do something about it. He suits his role well.
Elsewhere, Bernard Lee and Rita Tushingham both give decent performances in their respective roles…
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Set in and around London's Bethnal Green, on the brink of the slum clearances that so radically altered the East End, Basil Dearden's A Place To Go is an interesting mix of kitchen sink and crime drama which depicts a family struggling to keep their heads above water.
Mike Sarne, the '60s pop star and future director of the infamous flop Myra Breckinridge, stars as Ricky, a young man fed up of living on the breadline and struggling to provide for his family when his father (Bernard Lee) packs in his docker's job to take to the streets as an escapologist "working the queues", a move which ultimately places too much strain on his heart. Ricky finds love with feisty…
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Quite heavy-handed and unconvincing, my favourite example being the escapologist as a metaphor for the inability to break out from class/poverty.
Not awful, but probably the worst of the (15!) Dearden films I've seen.
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This would’ve been better if the main character didn’t bloody sing those ghastly songs.
I had to deduct a star for those little musical numbers. -
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Rita TushingDAAAAAAAYYYUM steals the show yet again.
Another Dearden off the list…
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Brilliant east end stuff set in slums, council flats and factories, but best of all the pubs.
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Man I am getting hooked on these late 50's and 60's Brit movies! In this one young Ricky Flint just wants "a place to go" to achieve his goal he gets caught up in a failed heist and ends up in the hospital. Of course there is a young girl also, Rita Tushingham, who doesn't seem to be in quite the hurry as Ricky, but Ricky is one persistent fellow.
A fun little movie worth your time.
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Another solid entry in Basil Dearden's body of work.
It seems through exploring his films so far that Dearden gravitates towards characters who not so much out of desperation or passion (which seem to drive most crime film protagonists) but a lack of purpose turn to a criminal lifestyle. I see it in the heroes of League of Gentleman, aimless war veterans who regain relevance through the heist. In The Ship That Died of Shame, it's much the same but takes a darker turn. With Pool of London, the crime aspect of the character's behavior really just boils down to part of his routine on shore leave.
This film has a similar situation. It's not so much that Ricky (the…
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Interesting by many counts but primarily because it represents a strange entry in the filmography of Basil Dearden. A Place to Go comes several years after some of his more famous and critically lauded pieces of social criticism, and two decades after his early attempts at social realist crime cinema, and somehow he blends both in some kind of response to the kitchen sink - angry young man films of the period in a somewhat unsatisfying manner. It's neither one nor the other and falls down because of that fact despite a loosely entertaining heist plot and some shrewd kitchen sink observations, plus Rita Tushingham as an early incarnation of the manic pixie dream girl.