Brighton Rock (1948)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Dark streets |
| Original title | Brighton Rock |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1948 |
| length | 92 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | John Boulting |
| script |
Graham Greene , Terence Rattigan |
| production |
Roy Boulting for Renown Pictures |
| music | Hans May |
| camera | Harry Waxman |
| cut | Peter Graham Scott |
| occupation | |
| |
Brighton Rock (in Germany also: Finstere Gassen ) is a British thriller in the style of film noir from 1948, which was created under the direction of the Boulting siblings based on Graham Greene's novel Brighton Rock from 1938. Richard Attenborough played the main role of the sadistic, only 17-year-old gangster Pinkie Brown , who first became known to a wide audience through this success. The British Film Institute voted Brighton Rock 15th in 1999 among the greatest British films of all time .
action
England in the 1930s: Newspaper reporter Fred Hale returns to the coastal city of Brighton under an assumed name to hide lucky cards in the city for a competition for his newspaper. Once in Brighton, Hale had betrayed a friend of his gang boss in an article, who was then shot. The gang of the shot gangster still exists, now led by the psychopathic and reckless teenager Pinkie Brown. It doesn't take long to find out about Fred Hale's arrival in Brighton and go on the hunt for him. Hale tries to hide from the gangsters in a ghost train on Brighton Pier , but Pinkie has got on next to him and falls Hale into the sea while driving. Pinkie's oldest gang member, Spicer, hands out the other lucky cards to make it look like Hale had an accident later that day and Pinkie then has an alibi. At first the plan works perfectly, the police suspect Hale's death to be an accident and not a murder.
But two women cause Pinkie worries: On the one hand, the showgirl Ida Arnold, who had an appointment with Hale on the evening of the murder and who noticed his fears of the gangsters; on the other hand, the waitress Rose, who observed that one of the lucky cards was not handed out by Hale, but by gang member Spicer. Pinkie fears the unwelcome witness Rose, because she could solve the murder crime. He approaches Rose, who knows nothing of Pinkie's involvement in the Hale case and immediately falls in love with the gangster. Pinkie marries her so that she cannot testify against him as a wife, even though both are actually only 17 years old. Meanwhile, Pinkie's gang is in a crisis as another gang of gangsters gain power over the Brighton Racecourse. In addition, Ida Arnold is involved as a hobby detective and wants to solve the mysterious death of Hale, asking many unpleasant questions and pinpointing Pinkie's gang. The cornered Pinky sees his weak point in old Spicer and kills him by throwing him off the banister.
Pinkie's gang continues to decline, and he decides to kill Rose and then leave town. Pinkie tells Rose that he could be caught by the police at any moment and that they should commit suicide together - her first, then him (but of course he doesn't intend to). But the backing of the tyrannical Pinky in his gang has slowly waned after the murder of Spicer. Ida Arnold and Pinky's gang member Dallow, who does not want to stand idly by a murder of Rose, call the police and manage to stop Rose from committing suicide. Pinkie drowns herself on the pier while fleeing the police. The still naive Rose weeps for the dead and still believes that he really loved her.
Reviews
Brighton Rock is considered to be one of the finest examples of British film noir . Based on 15 reviews, it has a positive rating of 100% on the Rotten Tomatoes critic portal .
“Brighton Rock from 1947, based on the novel of the same name by the British writer Graham Greene, who also wrote the screenplay with Terence Rattigan, is a shadowy, dark film noir par excellence, both through its criminalistic dimension and through its tragic, fatal "Love story" knows how to convince. Among the stringently drawn characters, a cool and charming Richard Attenborough stands out as the 17-year-old gang boss Pinkie, whose drastic development after the murder of Hale is a brilliant performance. The film, the staging of which is equally gripping and artistic down to the last detail and to the ambivalent-compassionate ending, was created as part of a collaboration between the Boulting brothers, with John being named as the director and Roy as the producer. "
"An atmospheric film with expressive characters, which, however, suffers a little from a clumsy direction."
“After the novel of the same name by Graham Greene, first published in 1938, John Boulting shot this heavily staged and acted thriller in the style of film noir . "Brighton Rock" is still considered one of the best British thrillers of all time and adheres relatively closely to the literary model. The later successful director Richard Attenborough gives a splendid performance of his acting in the role of petty crook, and William Hartnell is just as successful as his accomplice. "
Remake
In 2010, Graham Greene's novel was again made into a film by British director Rowan Joffe , with the film action being relocated to the 1960s. See: Brighton Rock (2010)
Web links
- Brighton Rock at the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Brighton Rock at Rotten Tomatoes
- ↑ Review at Kino-Zeit ( Memento of the original from February 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Review at the Lexicon of International Films
- ↑ Review at Prisma
