Die Sterne blicken herab (1940) watch online HD

Director Carol Reeds version of A.J. Cronins novel of poverty, greed and unfulfilled dreams still seems fresh today despite its sixty years.

Michael Redgrave stars as Davey Fenwick, a bright man from a poor mining background, who wins a scholarship to university. He hopes to graduate and then enter politics, so as to work to end the suffering of his kith and kin and their ilk.

However, his plans change when he meets and falls in love with Jenny Sunley (played by Margaret Lockwood), a strikingly beautiful but manipulative and materialistic little minx who has just been cruelly dumped (why???) by her boyfriend, Daveys old friend, the ruthlessly ambitious Joe Gowlan (Emlyn Williams). Understandably smitten, Davey marries the lovely but self-centred Jenny and, at her instigation, quits university and moves home to work as a schoolteacher. But his world is turned upside down when trouble at the pit, Jennys restlessness and the reappearance of Joe, whom Jenny still loves and who is now flashily well-to-do,combine.

At the time, this was one of the most expensive films ever made in Britain. But it was well worth the investment. It assured Carol Reeds reputation and gave to film audiences and to posterity a grimly realistic picture of life at the sharp end in 30s Britain. The all-star cast too got a chance to show their ability, giving terrific performances; Redgrave is superb as the disillusioned idealist, Williams is thoroughly unpleasant as the unfeeling, cynical Joe while Margaret Lockwood, one-time screen ingénue in her first wicked girl role, gives a wonderful performance as the drop-dead gorgeous, vixenish, gold-digging Jenny.

As social commentary this is a great movie, but, on another, more profound level,it works as a dark, despairing canvas depicting the often destructive nature of human relationships. Essential viewing!

I recently purchased this outstanding movie on video. Michael Redgrave has always been one of the finest actors of his generation and his performance in this film only serves to strenghten my opinion. I was very surprised by the way a film of this era, concentrated so much on the social and economic deprivation of the mining community in Great Britan, surely one of the largest workforce of the time. The struggle for better conditions and the respect of their employers as workers and human beings is perhaps the crux of this story but the underlying sub-plots of human greed and subterfuge made sure my interest never waned. It is to me most memorable as a story of the ordinary man, struggling through adversity, always with dignity and self-respect. Despite the often bleak surroudings and the fact that it is also shot in B&W to maximize this atmosphere, it never depressed me and left me feeling good,long after the last of the credits had rolled.

This appeared recently on BBC4's 'Coal night' - and seems an apposite choice given the subject matter.

My earliest memory of this story (I'm 42) is the 1974 serial produced when ITV still mattered and wasn't riddled with reality TV, puerile so called comedy and makeover shows. The 'drama' offered up by the third channel now is so lightweight the thought of the likes of the 21st century equivalent of Avril Elgar appearing it seems light years away from what could be described as reality (in the non vacuous sense). It was excellent, as I recall, but I didn't post this just to rant at the decline of ITV's quality standards, that's been done to death elsewhere.

So, the film - it's always refreshing and very pleasing to come across something 'new' from someone who has already earned their spurs elsewhere. Carol Reed needs no introduction to the cognoscenti of cinema - anyone who has seen 'The Third Man' or 'Fallen Idol' will testify to that! What's so good about this film is not only the beautiful evocation of a world long gone (it was made in 1939, just before the outbreak of WW2), but also gives an indication of just how difficult working class life must have been. If you did not work, you did not eat. Pretty much all the people who worked on this film are long dead, but watching it, and with an eye for the accuracy of how social history is portrayed, it's hard not to be moved by the grim reality of the inevitability of 'life down 'pit'. You're born into griding poverty, you grow up a friendly ragamuffin, you mine, you get old, you die.

Unless, of course, you're asked to mine Scupper Flats. The story itself is a strong one. In the days when mine owners swanned around in posh cars and deigned to show up at the pit once in a blue moon, the safety of being asked to mine a new face is called into question by idealistic young Davey Fenwick, who, having got his hands dirty down the mine, attempts a better life by breaking away and trying to earn a degree from the local university. Of course, a woman gets in the way, and the beautiful but manipulative and shallow Jenny Sunley (admirably played by Wicked Lady Margaret Lockwood) eyes an opportunity to 'better herself' financially and persuades Davey to drop out and become a school teacher. Eventually, Davey's idealism and pragmatic suspicions are proved correct, with tragic consequences.

Beautifully acted from a time when real craftsmanship went into British film making, the piece stands not only as great entertainment (though it won't engage 'movie' buffs with short attention spans who think anything pre 2008 isn't worth bothering with), but also as a wonderful piece of social history and a look at an age that's well and truly passed. The portentous voice over at the end reinforces this beautifully, and its idealistic call to action makes me wonder if we really have learned anything at all in the 70 years that followed.

The story in this feature is pretty interesting, but even a description of the story by itself would probably not communicate how thoughtful and atmospheric the movie is. It also has some particularly compelling stretches that are hard to forget afterward. Director Carol Reed shows good insight into the characters and the story, the cast make the characters believable and worth caring about, and the technical aspects help you to feel almost part of the action.

Michael Redgrave stars as a young idealist, determined to get an education so that he can improve conditions in the mining town where he lives. Redgrave's performance quietly brings out a lot about his character, as he learns about reality while fighting for the truth. Emlyn Williams is also effective as Redgrave's boyhood friend, who takes an entirely different, amoral approach to the same situation. Margaret Lockwood, well-cast as the rather vain young woman who captivates both of them, adds an important dimension. Several of the supporting cast members also do a good job in limited screen time.

The highlight is the extended rescue sequence in the second half, and it is very effectively done. But one of the reasons that it works so well is that it was prepared by such a solid foundation, establishing the characters and issues carefully so that, when the crisis hits, everything takes on more meaning.

Many of the topics touched upon by the movie are still of significance in themselves, but even beyond that, it creates a good deal of worthwhile drama about society and human nature in general.

I watched and thoroughly enjoyed "The Stars Look Down" which was screened today as part of the BBC's Summer Festival of historic British movies, having read and enjoyed the novel many years ago but having never previously had an opportunity to see the movie.

It was of particular interest because the novelist, A.J. Cronin actually set the novel near my home town of Ashington in the North East of England, and got it pretty well right as he'd worked as a medic in the area for some years. Interestingly enough, I noticed that many US critics refer to it as being set in a "Welsh" mining village. This may well be because they recognised Emlyn Williams's accent as Welsh and the rest were a pretty mixed bunch - I spotted only one genuine North-East accent! Like all "Socialist Realism" the melodrama was overplayed - nonetheless, there was some truth and accuracy in there and it was fascinating to see how the movie treats coal miners - rightly, in my opinion - as heroic figures.

An unjustly neglected classic.

I'm obsessed with the Third Man, and forever looking for similar movies. I get the impression that Carol Reed never made anything comparable to that classic, but this is an interesting, unusual film that is worth seeing in its own right.

It is a political drama about the struggle to control the means of production - no, really. Michael Redgrave and Emlyn Williams play two young men from a dour north-east mining town who escape, separately, to the bright lights of Newcastle. Redgrave's character is a scholarship kid at the university, while Williams plays a spiv who starts out working as a bookie but soon finds other dubious business interests.

They return home for different reasons, and clash over the future of the mine, which the workers suspect is unsafe. It's a surprisingly anti-establishment film for 1940, when Britain was deep into the Second World War, especially given Churchill's famously harsh treatment of striking miners in the 1920s.

For those whose taste in movies runs to films of social significance, you cannot go wrong with The Stars Look Down, a film from the United Kingdom about the coal mining industry in the days before the post World War II Labour Government nationalized the industry. Such a step would never have been contemplated in the mainstream political circles in the USA. The film makes a compelling case for it.

This film was a breakout success for Carol Reed who up to that time had been limited to what we call B picture features and what over the other side of the pond call quota quickies. It was produced by an independent studio called Grafton films and released here by the short lived Grand National Studios. Reed was contracted to Gainsborough Pictures and he was able to get fellow contractees Michael Redgrave, Margaret Lockwood, and Emlyn Williams for this production.

I don't think that Michael Redgrave was ever more idealistic on the screen than he was in The Stars Look Down. He plays a working class stiff who earns a scholarship to the university and he intends to use that education for the benefit of the miner class from where he comes. But this idealist is very human and he makes the wrong choice in a life partner in the form of pretty, but shallow Margaret Lockwood who sees him as a meal ticket to get ahead herself.

The guy who Lockwood was going with is Emlyn Williams who would be called a cad and a bounder over there. He's also a miner's kid, but his method of escape isn't exactly condoned in polite society, he becomes a bookmaker. Eventually he joins with management. One great thing about The Stars Look Down is we see where all these three characters came from and the values imparted to them.

Redgrave has two marvelous scenes that really stand out. The first is when he's in class and making an eloquent case in class for the government ownership of the coal mines. The second is before the Board of Trade arguing that the mine his father and others in his district is not safe because where they want to mine is holding back the sea itself. His own personal problems prevent the Board from listening to him. In both Redgrave personifies youthful idealism and impatience. In the end it's shown he has good reason to be impatient.

The film was shot on location at an actual colliery in Cumberland and the scenes depicting the mine disaster which is the climax of the film are frighteningly real and hold up well today. The film stands comparison to How Green Was My Valley which was a film on the same subject, but done in the poetical style of John Ford and done over here.

The Stars Look Down will still move the viewers and the problems of industrial safety are just as real today as they were when The Stars Look Down came out.

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.

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.

The main storyline is concerned with workers, capitalists and academic thinkers (resp. 'down' and 'stars' ?). And it might become much more relevant again soon. What's the use of a college education in times of recession and strikes? Like Jack Palance said in le Mepris (1963, Godard) 'wise men don't humiliate others with their lesser abilities....'. 'On The Waterfront' was way better on this economic subject, but as far as I'm concerned that was merely because of its director and protagonist. Others might emphasize it is American and has more suspense, which is true.

The dialogues sound kind of flat or monotonous, but the story is absolutely entertaining enough and the cinematography by Mutz Greenbaum (Thunder Rock) is really fine. He especially knows his way with contrast and composition apparently. Carol Reed (Odd Man Out, Fallen Idol, Third Man) gently develops the story and the points he (and writer Alec Coppel, who also wrote Vertigo and Obsession) wants to make. The movie as a whole is a quite moralistic and a bit too sincere, but again the directing and the cinematography more than make up. At last but not least, Michael Redgrave (Thunder Rock, Mr. Arkadin, the Innocents) puts forward a great deal of realism, enforcing A. J. Cronin's points. A point is that different social classes should have more respect for each other because they are complements, not substitutes. Another point is that it is probably a personal story (Cronin's ?). 8/10

I have to begin this review by saying I saw the U.S. edit of the movie. According to wikipedia, the unfortunate intro and outro are not in the English version, and there's an extra scene at the end.

Once you get past the useless introductory speech, this movie begins quite well, portraying a grim world and immediately giving one a feel for the plight of the miners.

For me, a difficulty came with the introduction of Margaret Lockwood's character. I admit there are selfish, empty headed people in the world, but they make for poor film characters. Fortunately it's a fairly small role, but it felt unnecessary to have her at all. She represents a melodramatic streak that unfortunately runs through the movie and lessens the overall impact.

While some parts were problematic, other parts are terrific, such as the mother's stoic attitude as her son goes off to college in which you see her feelings only when no one is looking. And the inevitable disaster is impressively handled.

I also didn't find Michael Redgrave complete believable. I'm not convinced he could develop such an upperclass accent no matter how hard he studied at the local schools.

While worth seeing, this could have been a better movie with a little less melodrama.

"Davey Fenwick leaves his English mining village on a university scholarship, intent on returning to better support the miners against the owners. But, he is trapped into marrying Jenny, and returns home as a local schoolteacher before finishing his degree. Davey finds he is ill-at-ease in his role, and he also soon realizes that Jenny still loves her former boyfriend; but, he decides to remain, working tirelessly on behalf of his friends, relatives, and neighbors," according to the DVD sleeve description.

Director Carol Reed's version of A.J. Cronin's "The Stars Look Down" is a historically important film, but one that can only be marginally recommended. There are flashes of brilliance from Mr. Reed, who went on to great acclaim in the 1940s. He moves the camera expressively. Reed always gives his actors something to do, with both their body (eg, raising an eyebrow) and surroundings (eg, pouring tea). But, most of the time, this makes performances very obvious. The soundtrack music blares repetitively. And, everything telegraphs the film's ending. The story remains strong and timeless, however, and it's ripe for re-make.

A fine group of British performers is featured. As a college-bound young lad, Michael Redgrave (as David Fenwick) is far too mature and distinguished in the early scenes, but does better later. His family includes an excellent Edward Rigby (as Robert), a morose Nancy Price (as Martha), and an animated Desmond Tester (as Hughie). While a more credible schoolteacher, Redgrave remains awkward in Reed's surroundings; he just doesn't look right slicing bread. On the other hand, co-stars Emlyn Williams (as Joe Gowlan) and Margaret Lockwood (as Jenny Sunley) bring their physicality and Reed's direction to success.

The film was a hit with US critics, and made several 1940 "Top 10" lists - most importantly, it closed in on "Best Picture" territory at #4 on the "National Board of Review" list, while Carol Reed's direction rose to #7 in the "New York Film Critics" poll.

****** The Stars Look Down (12/39) Carol Reed ~ Michael Redgrave, Margaret Lockwood, Emlyn Williams, Edward Rigby

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.

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

One of the greatest British films of its period. Carol Reed directed this version of A J Cronin's novel in a free-wheeling, naturalistic style that belies its literary source. It's consistently cinematic in a way British cinema wasn't until the late fifties or early sixties. It's about coal-mining, (and the coal-mining sequences are superb), but it's also about politics and education and class and its various themes run seamlessly through the picture.

Michael Redgrave, in an early performance, is remarkably good as the idealistic young miner who educates himself and becomes a teacher but sells out and marries a heartless guttersnipe brilliantly played by a young Margaret Lockwood. Emlyn Williams is the spiv she really loves and Edward Rigby and Nancy Price are both superb as Redgrave's parents. In terms of style it's a much more primitive picture than some of Reed's later work such as "The Third Man" and "The Fallen Idol" but that works in its favour. This is a raw, highly energized picture and it's very moving.

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.

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.