THE STARS LOOK DOWN (1940)

With Alfred Hitchcock off to Hollywood*, Carol Reed became presumptive top Brit helmer. A position signified with a £100,000 budget on this downbeat prestige piece which hoped to repeat the success of King Vidor on THE CITADEL/’38, from A.J. Cronin’ second novel, with this adaptation of Cronin’s first. Both coal town stories, here the P.O.V. shifts from Robert Donat’s new doctor in town to Michael Redgrave’s miner’s son on university scholarship, his upward trajectory stopped when sex rears its lovely head in the form of conniving vixen Margaret Lockwood, latching on to Redgrave when first choice Emlyn Williams leaves her flat. Now back in his old mining town as a teacher, Redgrave is drawn into coal politics when mine owners, the union and the advisory council all give the go-ahead to reopen a shaft in spite of a weak retaining wall Redgrave and his dad have been warning about for years. Given his big opportunity, Reed handles everything they throw at him, with strong, realistic staging and few compromises in story, character or political alliances (eye-opening stuff with the union). What he can’t do is soften Cronin’s misogyny as another woman is used to push a husband against his best judgement/better angels. (Here, the wife; in CITADEL, the mistress; but each letting the guy off the hook.) Very impressive all the same.

DOUBLE-BILL: John Ford’s classic HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY/’41 makes for an obvious comparison (though what can compare with it?), but concentrates more on personal family issues rather than socio-economics. Instead, as mentioned, THE CITADEL, especially for its better first half, with Ralph Richardson wonderful as a doctor with anarchist tendencies.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Four leading players from Hitchcock’s LADY VANISHES/’38 in here: Redgrave, Lockwood, Cecil Parker & Linden Travers. Plus, Desmond Tester, the young brother Hitch blew up in SABOTAGE/’36.

READ ALL ABOUT IT: With Cronin hard to find, try the first chapters of George Orwell’s coal mining exposé THE ROAD TO WIGAN PIER.