Rush To Danger, Wind Up Nowhere

IT'S DIFFICULT not to sound like a (spoiler alert) broken record when talking about the failings of Rowan's Joffe's recent take on Brighton Rock. However, one happy result of the attention surrounding the remake is that the vastly superior Boulting Brothers original has been digitally restored and is now available on Blu-ray for the first time.

Filmed almost entirely on location in Brighton, unlike the remake, the 1947 adaptation of Graham Greene's novel burns with a noirish intensity that's unrivalled in post-war British cinema (with the possible exception of Night And The City three years later). Twenty-four-year-old Richard Attenborough is a terrifying mix of menace and innocence as catchpenny boy-man hoodlum Pinkie Brown, who murders a visiting journalist and then woos waitress Rose (Carol Marsh) in order to prevent her testifying against him. There's also magnificent support from Hermione Baddeley as Pinkie's avenging angel Ida, while William Hartnell, Nigel Stock and Wylie Watson are suitably seedy as his gang.

Playwright Terence Rattigan receives a screenplay credit, but the script was heavily rewritten by Greene. Greene was also responsible for altering the film's ending, after censors ruled that the original conclusion was too bleak. Curiously, Joffe retained this ending for his version, which somewhat undermines his assertion that he went back to the book for inspiration.

Thankfully, there's nothing muddled (or muddied) about this Blu-ray release, which presents cinematographer Harry Waxman's expressionist images of the city in their full claustrophobic glory. I'd urge anyone who was disappointed by the remake to seek this out. This is the film that will last. As Ida says of Brighton's famous confectionery in the novel: 'Bite it all the way down, you'll still read Brighton.'
Brighton Rock (Optimum Classic) is released on Blu-ray and DVD on 28th February.

FILM DIARY: What I've been watching in 2011...

Brighton Rock (John Boulting, 1947) (9/10)

Doctor Strange (Patrick Archibald, Jay Oliva, Dick Sebast and Frank Paur, 2007) This direct-to-DVD animated film of Marvel Comics' Sorcerer Supreme suffers from not being strange enough. The visuals of any Doctor Strange story will inevitably be compared to the 1960s work of his co-creator Steve Ditko, who fashioned a psychedelic world of surreal perspectives, bizarre angles and nightmarish landscapes. Here, everything feels flat, with any magical elements being overwhelmed by dull swordplay. (5/10)

Police, Adjective (Corneliu Porumboiu, 2009) Another excellent example of the Romanian New Wave. A junior police detective (played with world-weary charm by Dragos Bucur) is investigating the activities of a drug-smoking high-school student. This involves long scenes of him tailing suspects, hanging around outside people's homes and filing mind-numbing reports. The closest the film comes to an action sequence is when someone has just five minutes to find a dictionary – and even that happens offscreen. It's so slow-paced and unshowy it makes The Wire look like Bad Boys 2. Yet Police, Adjective is shot through with absurdist humour and it's a quite brilliant exploration of conscience, language and a country caught between two worlds. (9/10)

COLIN HOULSON

Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here