Brighton Rock (1947)
Brighton Rock was one of the final entries in Take Up Productions’ excellent Brit Noir series. Based on a Graham Greene novel, it’s about a small group of gangsters in vacation destination Brighton, England. The gang is led by cold-eyed, smooth-faced Pinkie, played chillingly by Richard Attenborough, whose age belies his capacity for cruelty. (And who bore a distracting resemblance to my brother-in-law.) When he kills a man, two women remain who know more than he’d like. One is innocent girl Rose, a waitress. The other is sharp-voiced and initially boozy Ida, who the dead man had tried to use an an escape. She doesn’t believe he died of a heart attack, as the police report states, so she begins to investigate, which leads her to Rose:
Ida: Now listen, dear. I’m human, I’ve loved a boy or two in my time. It’s natural, like breathin’. Not one of them’s worth it, let alone this fellow you’ve got hold of.
This was an exciting twist on the more classically American noir. While some broad strokes are the same, I enjoyed puzzling out a few of the particulars. Attenborough is chilling, and the ending tense as he tries to drag Rose down a path she refuses to see coming. The ending is fittingly ironic. Some see it as happy. While it’s less dark than the one IMDB says was intended, there’s more bitterness than hope. Lesser known than The Third Man, Brighton Rock is very good and worth seeking out, especially as a remake is due later this year.