During the late fifties and early sixties the British cinema became known for a series of "kitchen sink" films- social-realist pictures focusing on the lives of ordinary working-class people. Examples include "Look Back in Anger", "A Taste of Honey" and "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning". "The Stars Look Down" from 1940 can be seen as a precursor of the kitchen sink movement. Like many of the later kitchen sink films it was based on a literary source, in this case a novel by A. J. Cronin. Cronin's book covered a much longer period of time, starting in the years before the First World War, but the film, entirely set in the 1930s, only deals with part of the story.
The action takes place in Sleescale, a mining town in North East England. The main character is David Fenwick, the son of a miner who has ambitions to go to university and use his knowledge to help improve the conditions of the working class. He wins a place at the prestigious University of Tynecastle (a fictionalised version of Newcastle), but leaves without taking a degree when he gets married, and returns to Sleescale as a teacher at the local school.
David's story is told against a background of industrial unrest. As the film opens, the miners of Sleescale, led by David's father Robert, are on strike, not over pay but because they believe a section of the mine to be dangerous and at risk of flooding. They receive no support from their union, however, and are eventually forced back to work by hardship. (At some periods of its history the Mineworkers' Federation of Great Britain, which later became the National Union of Mineworkers, had a reputation for militancy, but after its defeat in the General Strike of 1926 it was cautious about backing strike action, especially during the Great Depression of the thirties).
Another important character is Joe Gowlan, another miner's son and an old school friend of David. Like David, he has ambitions to rise above his working-class roots, but unlike the idealistic David he is amoral and selfish. We first meet him working as a bookmaker in Tynecastle, but he soon goes into business on his own account. He enters into a contract with Richard Barras, the corrupt owner of the Sleescale coal mine, for a supply of coking coal, which means that Barras will have to continue working the dangerous part of the mine. Barras has a set of old plans of the mine which clearly show the danger, but, tempted by the profits which the new contract promises to bring him, deliberately suppresses these. The result, of course, is disaster; the mineworkings are flooded and a group of miners, including Robert and David's younger brother Hughie, are trapped. The race is on to save them before time runs out.
The film opened shortly after the outbreak of war. The director Carol Reed thought that the film would be a flop because wartime audiences would prefer something escapist or uplifting rather than a serious look at social problems. In the event, however, the film was a box-office success. This may have been due to a feeling that we were not just fighting a war "against" something- Nazism- but also a war "for" something, for a better Britain free from the injustices of the thirties. The film contains a strong call for the nationalisation of the mining industry, something the left-wing Cronin strongly believed in, and which was achieved when a Labour government was returned after the war.
Of course, it is also possible that the film succeeded at the box office because of its own merits, as it is an excellent piece of work. There is a very good performance from Michael Redgrave as David. He may be an idealist, but he is not idealised, because he also has his weaknesses, being impetuous and too easily led by his flighty and inconstant wife Jenny. (It may have helped that Redgrave shared the left-wing politics of his character). Reed succeeds in giving us a convincing picture of life in a coal-mining community, and there is a very moving, if downbeat ending, rather than the happy one we have been led to expect. Reed was to move away from the "kitchen sink" school and into other areas of film-making, but he paved the way for later directors like Karel Reisz, Tony Richardson and John Schlesinger. 8/10.
The action takes place in Sleescale, a mining town in North East England. The main character is David Fenwick, the son of a miner who has ambitions to go to university and use his knowledge to help improve the conditions of the working class. He wins a place at the prestigious University of Tynecastle (a fictionalised version of Newcastle), but leaves without taking a degree when he gets married, and returns to Sleescale as a teacher at the local school.
David's story is told against a background of industrial unrest. As the film opens, the miners of Sleescale, led by David's father Robert, are on strike, not over pay but because they believe a section of the mine to be dangerous and at risk of flooding. They receive no support from their union, however, and are eventually forced back to work by hardship. (At some periods of its history the Mineworkers' Federation of Great Britain, which later became the National Union of Mineworkers, had a reputation for militancy, but after its defeat in the General Strike of 1926 it was cautious about backing strike action, especially during the Great Depression of the thirties).
Another important character is Joe Gowlan, another miner's son and an old school friend of David. Like David, he has ambitions to rise above his working-class roots, but unlike the idealistic David he is amoral and selfish. We first meet him working as a bookmaker in Tynecastle, but he soon goes into business on his own account. He enters into a contract with Richard Barras, the corrupt owner of the Sleescale coal mine, for a supply of coking coal, which means that Barras will have to continue working the dangerous part of the mine. Barras has a set of old plans of the mine which clearly show the danger, but, tempted by the profits which the new contract promises to bring him, deliberately suppresses these. The result, of course, is disaster; the mineworkings are flooded and a group of miners, including Robert and David's younger brother Hughie, are trapped. The race is on to save them before time runs out.
The film opened shortly after the outbreak of war. The director Carol Reed thought that the film would be a flop because wartime audiences would prefer something escapist or uplifting rather than a serious look at social problems. In the event, however, the film was a box-office success. This may have been due to a feeling that we were not just fighting a war "against" something- Nazism- but also a war "for" something, for a better Britain free from the injustices of the thirties. The film contains a strong call for the nationalisation of the mining industry, something the left-wing Cronin strongly believed in, and which was achieved when a Labour government was returned after the war.
Of course, it is also possible that the film succeeded at the box office because of its own merits, as it is an excellent piece of work. There is a very good performance from Michael Redgrave as David. He may be an idealist, but he is not idealised, because he also has his weaknesses, being impetuous and too easily led by his flighty and inconstant wife Jenny. (It may have helped that Redgrave shared the left-wing politics of his character). Reed succeeds in giving us a convincing picture of life in a coal-mining community, and there is a very moving, if downbeat ending, rather than the happy one we have been led to expect. Reed was to move away from the "kitchen sink" school and into other areas of film-making, but he paved the way for later directors like Karel Reisz, Tony Richardson and John Schlesinger. 8/10.