1947 Directed by John Boulting
Centring on the activities of a gang of assorted criminals and, in particular, their leader – a vicious young hoodlum known as "Pinkie" – the film's main thematic concern is the criminal underbelly evident in inter-war Brighton.
"I've sunk so deep I carry the secrets of the sewer."
Unceasingly bleak melodrama about the internal corruption of the hateful male psyche and the folly of an inexperienced lust for power. Careful not to get lost in an almost impenetrable fog of British slang; the ending is kind of a knockout.
I'm entranced by the way the Boulting Brothers wield their camera. (This is the first movie of theirs I've seen.) The sharp pans with which they follow Pinkie and his gang around Brighton, or their preoccupation with certain objects: a telephone, a doll, a crucial phonograph record. I'm also upset by how tightly Catholic guilt, courtesy of writer Graham Greene, is wound around the character of Rose, played with the utmost devotion by first-time actress Carol Marsh. Her performance, coupled with Richard Attenborough's display of mesmerizing sociopathy, makes this essential (and especially powerful) Brit noir. There's this shot of her gazing through the glass of a soundproof booth while Pinkie engraves his voice onto that record for her, and god, it tore my heart right out.
The performances of Richard Attenborough and Hermione Baddeley in this movie are outstanding in the entire history of British cinema. Baddeley plays the most unlikely detective as she tracks the murder of Kolley Kibber (yes that's right, I spelt it wrong) and tries to save the naif Rose from herself and the dread Pinkie Brown. Baddeley's Ida Arnold, a pier end clown by day, the very definition of the old phrase "brass", is the natural mother hen. She also plays the human analogue of the town of Brighton, tough, seedy; grinning on the outside but hard as a stick of rock through the middle. Brighton appears to be an amoral hell on earth, where the law is sneered at. The…
After watching the debut episode of Channel 4's excellent Brighton set gangland drama 'The Fear' tonight I was in the mood for some more of that seaside town that Keith Waterhouse declared 'always looks as though it is helping the police with their inquiries' and so I found myself re-watching Brighton Rock.
I say re-watching but to be honest it's been that long since I first saw it (in my teens) that apart from a few obvious well known set pieces that I'm naturally familiar with (I mean who could forget the ghost train or all the face slashing? The crowd turning on Spicer...and Pinkie? Hartnell's cruel spitting in the hallway after roughing up a debtor or Pinkie's vinyl recording…
The Boulting brothers' version of Graham Greene's classic novel retains the heavy blanket of Catholicism that adds so much weight to its source. This is shown in the two characters of Richard Attenborough's Pinkie and Carol Marsh's Rose, and their interpretation of their faith. Like contemporary Evelyn Waugh, Greene wrestled with his faith through his fiction, and Rose and Pinkie's attitude to their metaphysical concerns are as important to Brighton Rock as its ostensible plot about the clashing razor gangs running the Southern racecourses.
Because of this, the Boulting's film is a surprisingly meditative examination of moral ambiguity, with only flashes of the violence it was infamous for on its release. Indeed, Attenborough's portrayal of Pinkie has gone down in…
This was very close to a 5. Formally impeccable-how did the Boultings become forgotten?
rewatching this as my english exam on crime texts is on thursday and I forgot how cute rose is and how hilarious pinkie as a character is in general
Pinkie is one of the great screen villains, Attenborough brings a wonderfully uncomfortable mixture of vulnerability and menace to the character... And that record. Wow.
Brighton Rock is, at times, a surprisingly sinister film however it is the character of Pinky seemingly the only one without redemption. An effective performance from Richard Attenborough as Pinky holds this enjoyable British mob-flick together.
I first saw this over a decade ago, at an open air cinema by the Thames. I'm not counting it as a rewatch since I could only remember the final scene, and absolutely nothing running up to it.
There's something adorably wooden about British movies of this era, maybe it's actors used to the stage and not the camera, but I loved how that strange theatricality made the scenes seem so much eerier.
Really strong crime thriller with great performances and wonderful writing.
Jason Bullok 1,000 films
A list of Edgar Wright's favorite 1000 Movies per his list on Mubi on July 27th, 2016.
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