| RATING: | 100% |
| FORMAT: | DVD |
One of those rare movies that really is every bit as good as they say it is. Two of the twentieth-century's greatest British writers (Graham Greene & Terence Rattigan) collaborated on a near-perfect script from the Greene novel of the same name. Their characterizations are both fulsome and credible.
As you would expect from Greene, there is fundamentalist and Roman guilt and shame about sex aplenty. The characters imagine they are going to Hell; while scarcely recognizing the living hell in which they already abide. Greene is almost saying that Roman Catholicism is precisely the kind of philosophy that produces such behavior.
There are also excellent performances here from first-rate actors as well as superb direction from Boulting - he creates a style that perfectly captures the crepuscular world in which the characters choose to live. Richard ATTENBOROUGH (a better actor than a director) dominates throughout as the psychotic hoodlum Pinkie Brown; while the very fine Carol MARSH shines as Brown's starry-eyed wife. This is true ensemble work of the highest order and all-of-a-piece; describing a believable world that still exists around the world - despite the fatuous written claim at the beginning of the film that Brighton is not now as depicted here. In this pretty-much perfect movie, the seediness is palpable: The best British crime noir ever.
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