Brighton Rock (1947) Dir: John Boulting
Terrific, mostly faithful adaptation of Graham Greene’s ‘entertainment’, by Greene himself and Terence Rattigan (The Winslow Boy, The Browning Version).
The story is about Pinkie Brown (Richard Attenborough), the 17-year-old leader of a small-time mob in the English resort town of Brighton. He also happens to be a cold-blooded psychotic with a paradoxical bent toward clean living (no drink, no smoke) and an unflinching Catholic faith and foreboding attachment to Hell (“These atheists don’t know nothing—course there’s a Hell, flames, damnation, torments”). Pinkie’s mob is falling apart around him. There’s a bigger mob (run by a man named Colleoni who fancies himself more of a ‘businessman’ than a thug) that actually runs Brighton, much to Pinkie’s humiliation. There’s also been a murder, and Pinkie needs to clean up some loose ends, even though the police have ruled the death was of natural causes. His own man, Spicer (Wylie Watson, who played Mr. Memory in The 39 Steps), has been sloppy, or “milky” as Pinkie calls him. Pinkie starts a relationship with Rose (Carol Marsh, Fan in 1951’s Scrooge, the Hammer Dracula), a mousy waitress at a local café who may be a witness, in order to keep her quiet. Then there’s Ida (Hermione Baddeley), a blowzy, big-hearted barfly, who had a chance meeting with the victim before he was killed and conducts her own investigation to prove her suspicion that he was forced into suicide/murdered by Pinkie and his mob. As the situation degrades for Pinkie, the heat turns on and Ida and the police close in, all leading to a thrilling end and a marvelous coda where we see that at least one character may go on with some hope.
This is a superb crime picture that stands with any of the other Greene-based works from the 40’s (This Gun for Hire, Ministry of Fear, The Fallen Idol), if not quite The Third Man. Attenborough is remarkable as Pinkie. He’s appropriately chilling, occupied with his ‘cat’s cradle’ but ready to go to Hell. While the film does a nice job of developing Pinkie and showing more depth than the average lunatic, its here in his characterization where there is a slight divergence with the book. There's a reason why Pinkie recoils and is repulsed by Rose's attempts to get closer to him, but it's just not explored here. The film shows us that he's revolted by marriage and devoid of all sentiment and emotion, but not why.
The rest of the cast is excellent, too. Baddeley is terrific. Carol Marsh, in the first role of an unfortunately modest career, is absolutely pitch-perfect as Rose. A lot of the film depends on her and she carries it all the way.
Another striking aspect of the production is the cinematography, credited to Harry Waxman. There’s some fantastic location shots of Brighton (a year before The Naked City no less), as well as a pivotal moment in a funhouse that is brilliant.
There’s also a goofy disclaimer at the beginning telling us that while these mobs thrived between the wars, well, that was a different Brighton than the one we have today. Good to know.
A minor classic from Boulting (I’m All Right, Jack) that I believe is greatly underrated on this side of the pond, and as such is criminally unavailable on R1 DVD (like another gem of ’47 British cinema, Odd Man Out).
Note: The title refers to a type of candy that was popular at the seaside resorts of Brighton.
out of 4.