Once I got into the mode of understanding what was going on, and who was who, the basic idea of the story began to make sense, even 70 years later than this was made and across the pond. Sports scandals still occur, much more scandalous than this, but the shock is still the same in the public eye. This involves a British football team and the efforts to steal the star of a rival team. Behind the scenes, employees of a factory (owned by Geoffrey Toone and managed by Thora Hird), there's lots more than just the sport at the forefront, with scheming Diana Dors making an impact as the femme fatale, and Toone and Hird even more memorable in major supporting parts, their own stories giving them plenty of good material to work with. James Hayter, John Laurie and Jack Lambert also give good performances. The film is memorable on many different levels, particularly as a document of the British working class and the passions of their time away from the daily grind of their exhausting work lives. A mixture of comedy and drama aides this in being a very interesting piece of slice of life.
Review of The Great Game
