Hailed as the first British crime thriller, Brighton Rock was released in 1947.

The script was written by the book’s author Graham Greene, a writer rigorously unafraid of addressing the more extreme aspects of the human psyche and who therefore succeeded in creating a terrifying abyss of a personality in the central character, Pinkie.

The screening being part of the Dark And Stormy festival, we were introduced to the film by Barry Forshaw, an expert in crime film and fiction.

Barry went to great pains during a fascinating ten-minute lecture not to include spoilers for the minority of us who hadn’t yet seen or read BR.

If you haven’t yet, live here and enjoy that sort of thing you might like to make it a priority. Yes, it’s thoroughly disturbing but contains plenty of nostalgic footage of this “large, jolly, friendly, seaside town” to temper the blow somewhat.

Tenacious vaudevillian justice-seeker Ida Arnold, played by Hermione Baddeley provides the title when she offers the line, “Look at me. I’ve never changed. It’s like those sticks of rock: bite it all the way down, you’ll still read Brighton. That’s human nature.”

A classic that’s lost none of it’s impact, Brighton Rock rules.