User Reviews

A. J. Cronin is best known for his Dr Finlay books but is also the author of many social reality books such as How Green was my Valley and this, The Stars Look Down.

All through the film we are aware of the dangers of mining too near a water source. The older miners know about it, our hero's father has even seen plans of the pit, but the owner, Mr Barrass, is adamant that he wouldn't flood his own pit and the union are taken in by this.

As a result the miners go on unnoficial strike for three months and are eventually driven back to work by starvation. Not before Davey Fenwick (our hero)'s father is jailed for his involvement in ransacking a butcher who refuses a meat bone to a miner who's wife has pneumonia. During this ransack our villain, Joe Gowland, hides and helps himself to the contents of the butcher's till, absconding on the next train out of town.

Davey is a bright lad and is working hard towards a scholarship for university which he achieves and moves in the big city to study for his degree. Here he meets up again with Joe who introduces him to Jenny, a rather dim gold-digger whom Joe is trying to unload as he has his ambitious eyes on the wife of a wealthy pit owner (a brief cameo from the excellent Cecil Parker),

Eventually Joe sneaks away from the digs where he has met Jenny while staying with her mother and Jenny decides to get her claws into Davey instead. This is disasterous for our hero how is eventually persuades to ditch his studies and become a schoolmaster. This goes wrong as his employer thinks his teaching methods too unorthodox and sacks him. Davey has to fall back on giving the son of Mr Barrass the pit owner lessons at 10s a week. Not enough for Jenny who eventually hooks up with Joe again.

At the climax of the film the worst comes to worst and the pit is flooded, trapping Davey's father and five others, including Joe's father, behind half a mile of roof collapse. Davey and other miners dig vigorously to try to get them out, helped by Mr Barrass who obviously knows the plans of the old workings despite having denied their existence. The dig proves too hard and takes too long to the trpped men die.

At that stage the film comes to a sad end but there needs to be too levels of context borne in mind. Firstly the censorship laws governing film at the time mean that certain aspects of the story are not filmed, or at least don't appear in the final cut.

One scene in the film that doesn't have the weight it has in the book shows Mr Barrass looking at Joe's contract for coking coal and saying "I don't lie that penalty clause". Joe plays it down. In the event we don't see that the penalty clause is invoked as a result of the tragedy causing the Barrass family to fail to fulfill the contract. Joe is then able to buy the pit at a knockdown price from the bankrupted owners and ends up running the pit. Davey, with no prospects, ends up back working down the pit.

What the film also doesn't show is that Joe gets Jenny pregnant and makes her have an abortion (illegal at the time). Davey eventually finds her in hospital and is at her side when she dies.

This film was made just five years before the 1945 Labour Government nationalised the coal industry so the Joe Gowlans of this world didn' have long to prosper. Having said that he would probably have made a fortune out of the war effort and ended up in a cosy directorship somewhere. Cronin's point is heavily made in the book but in the film we don't see Joe any longer after Davey has sent him packing for cuckholding him.

The story of a mining family in Newcastle or CastleTyne, which used to be a center of wool processing and later became legendary for its coal -- so much so that nobody wanted to bring coals to Newcastle. All of the working folk are grimy, and they're split between union and non-union. Now management wants them to work Scupper Flats, a coal field underground whose excavation approaches the River Tyne too closely. The union has deemed it safe enough and management argues that they wouldn't flood their own mine. Yet, if the earthy partition between mine and river should give way, the results will be distressful.

The workers call a strike. Work stops and everyone scrounges for food. Breakfast is a cup of tea and a slice of rough bread. Michael Redgrave is the sober son of an ordinary mining family, working through the night to complete his application for a scholarship. His family's feelings about college are mixed and Redgrave himself seems dispirited.

Living on the edge like that used to seem romantic to some people, probably still does. After all, the artist starving in his garret, François Villon stealing gold, Jean Valjean becoming mayor, Horatio Alger, poverty as a speed bump on the road to achievement. But if you've been there, the sense of challenge fades and despair takes its place. For example, here we have the miners sitting around the brick-lined mews, exchanging unpleasant pleasantries, with no work and no money. And then the wife of one of the workers comes down with pneumonia. The only treatment is a cup of beef broth but the butcher, tired of all the begging, refuses to surrender any beef bones. It's a conundrum.

Redgrave gets his scholarship in the TyneCastle and we hear him give a speech about the need for public ownership of natural resources that would land him in the dog house in today's America. He also enters into a tangled relationship with Margaret Lockwood, his co-player in "The Lady Vanishes" from a few years earlier, here an uneducated and tarty young usherette.

She's attractive but, like all of us, isn't entirely open with those she deals with. She's extremely anxious to be married. She needs desperately to get away from her domineering mother, and when her flighty boyfriend leaves she turns to Redgrave, protesting a love for him that she doesn't feel. She persuades Redgrave to drop out of college and take a job as a schoolteacher because she doesn't want to wait until he earns his degree. He does as she asks, which is a big mistake for him, the fool.

Back in the mining town, she sits around eating bonbons and reading magazines but the moment he walks through the door she hides the magazines, pouts, and wordlessly, brusquely, brings him a cup of tea. He asks what's wrong and she launches a litany of complaints -- no maid, no wireless, a town drained of life. And she nags him too, driving the spike home, telling him not to leave the table without excusing himself, and so forth. At this point, I wasn't sure whether I was watching the movie or "Married With Children" or experiencing a flashback to my own catastrophic brush with marriage. She blows off Redgrave's Mom and Dad. She cuckolds Redgrave. She splits. She's really terrible.

This is a movie about coal miners and if you've seen "How Green Was My Valley" or any other movie about coal miners you'll be able to guess the ending. Don't expect too much in the way of sentimentality because there isn't any. This isn't Hollywood and Darryl F. Zanuck isn't rewriting everything.

It was directed by Carol Reed but it's an early effort. Aside from certain camera angles and some striking touches of dramatic lighting there isn't that much to suggest the masterpieces that were to follow. Some others have commented that there are no villains in the story but that's not quite true. The mine owners are among the villains but at least one of them is shown as human. And among the workers, there are plenty of thoughtless people as well as principled ones.

The two things I remembered about this film (taken from the novel by A.J. Cronin) were Margaret Lockwood's portrayal of Davey's unfaithful wife, Jenny and Desmond Tester as Hughie Fenwick. It wasn't a big role but as usual Tester made you remember him. He didn't make many movies, this was the last but one before he settled in Australia but next to Nova Pilbeam he was the best British child actor of the 30s.

Neptune Colliery is closed due to a dispute between the miners and the mine owners. The miners refuse to work Skupper Flats, a very dangerous mine and the owners want to teach them a lesson. The Fenwicks are at breaking point - they are almost starving. Davey (Michael Redgrave) is studying, to help the miners find a better way of life. His mother, strangely enough, does not approve - she finds book learning "too high and mighty" - only his father is sympathetic. His kid brother Hughie (Desmond Tester) dreams of being a star footballer. Nancy Price is just a stand out as Martha Fenwick - so hard on the surface, but in the scene where Davey is leaving, she gives him his sandwich and turns away so he doesn't see the anxiety and longing in her face that the camera shows.

Joe (Emlyn Williams) is the bad lad of the town and takes advantage of a run on the local butcher shop (which he incites) to rob the till and leave town. Davey also leaves to further his studies. He meets Joe at Tyneside, along with Jenny (Margaret Lockwood). To make Joe jealous, Jenny flirts with Davey and ends up marrying him, bringing him nothing but grief. Davey wants to study for his degree but Jenny forces him to put his plans aside and take a job as a teacher. His unorthodox teaching methods draws scorn from the older teachers, he is sacked and turns to private tutoring. Joe also turns up - a successful businessman, wanting to re-open Scupper Flats. Davey goes on a crusade to keep the mine closed but it falls on deaf ears. Hughie is happy - he is finally getting a chance to play football for Tyneside on Saturday.

The inevitable happens and the mine caves in. Davey's father, and brother Hughie are among those trapped on the old side, including a young chap that had begged to go along that day. The last part of the film is just gripping as the miners enter their third entombed day. Desmond Tester is heartbreaking as Hughie, who keeps himself alive with his hope to play football on Saturday. As they sit there you see the game being played, Hughie's name has been crossed off the list.

Also of interest the beautiful Linden Travers plays a small part as Mrs. Laura Millington, Joe's mistress.

Carol Reed's direction is superb. With the blend of social commentary, mining scenes and domestic strife it is a film that really holds your interest. I think it is a far better film than "How Green Was My Valley".

Highly Recommended.

Shooting on this movie wrapped in mid September, 1939, days after England declared war on Germany and it seems a peculiar choice given the climate in which it was made - war must surely have seemed inevitable virtually throughout 1939 - a climate which was surely crying out for lighter fare, musicals, comedies rather than turgid social comment with a downbeat ending. It represented the third teaming in two years of Michael Redgrave and Margaret Lockwood and indeed Redgrave was the sole selling point for me as I am a great admirer and have still to see some of his work on film. In his favour director Carol Reed agrees with my own opinion that Hitchcock is overrated but alas, so too is Reed in my opinion. I watched recently his highly risible Climbing High - the second teaming, after The Lady Vanishes, of Redgrave and Lockwood and struggled to understand why it wasn't laughed off the screen and I find this only marginally better. Redgrave is excellent as one would expect but Emlyn Williams for example attempt to out ham Charles Laughton and labours under the misapprehension that he's acting on stage rather than screen as a result of which he 'points up' everything he says and does, pitching his performance to the Gods in the Sunderland Empire rather than the first row of the Odeon, Hull. Nancy Price seems to be auditioning for The Weird Sisters and so on. Clearly its heart was in the right place but certainly viewed today it fails to stand up.

This film was perhaps Britain's answer to "How Green Was My Valley" (1940) or perhaps it was the other way around. However, unlike this Hollywood version of life for the British coal miners, "The Stars Look Down" seems much more like a film to promote political change. In many ways, this film seems to be an early British call for more than just stronger unions to protect the workers but nationalization. While I am loathe to admit it (as I am basically very pro-capitalism), the film makes a very good case for socialism—at least in regard to the miners and their very dangerous jobs. "The Stars Look Down" features Michael Redgrave, Margaret Lockwood and Emlyn Williams—but mostly centers on Redgrave. He's the son of a coal miner and unlike most in his village, he loves education and sees as his way of helping his people. The unions appear indifferent to their plight and the mine owner seems very willing to risk his workers' lives---and Redgraves' character is determined to get a college education and enter, if possible, politics in order to force better working conditions. However, along the way his focus is diverted and his goal of nationalizing the industry seems at risk. Can he do something before more men are sacrificed for coal?

Considering the film stars the most excellent actor, Redgrave, it's not at all surprising that the acting was terrific and the story compelling. My only complaint, and it's a minor one, is that perhaps too much of the story is about this young man and not enough is about the miners. But, It's a small complaint and the film quite compelling. Too bad, however, that after receiving what they wanted that the industry has pretty much shut down in recent years.

This superbly realized adaptation of the Cronin novel is not only a fine drama in its own right, but provides some splendid acting opportunities for principals and character players alike. In fact, Allan Jeayes who played minor bits in Korda films of the 30's, here has one of the biggest and best roles of his career as the strong-minded, greedily opportunistic mine owner. It is also great to see Emlyn Williams in a typically villainous part and Margaret Lockwood incredibly effective in a character role as a selfish shrew. Redgrave is much his steadfastly stolid self, but powerfully coming to life in such scenes as his plea to the union executive to become involved in a proposed strike. Both the novel and the film are critical of private ownership, the case for a National Coal Board being argued strongly. (As it later happened, the coal industry was nationalized, but this did little to alleviate the miners' plight. Indeed some historians argue that it made conditions worse). Reed has directed with his usual fine eye for detail and love of effective pictorial compositions. In the former aim, he is wonderfully assisted by meticulously fascinating art direction; in the latter by strikingly atmospheric cinematography. Although its central issues have passed into history, The Stars Look Down has lost little of its initial poignancy and power

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.