Chichester Cinema at New Park
The Stars Look Down
CHICHESTER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Sir Michael Redgrave:
A Selective Retrospective to Celebrate his Centenary
Special event with Corin Redgrave:
We conclude this short retrospective with a rare screening of ‘The Stars Look Down’ (1940) – archive print courtesy of the BFI Film & Television National Archive. We are delighted to welcome to Chichester Corin Redgrave who will introduce his father’s film.
Made in 1939, but released in the US at around the same time as ‘How Green Was My Valley’, this superb view of the plight of British miners was unfortunately overlooked at the box office. Though related in subject, ‘The Stars Look Down’ is much grimmer than John Ford's classic.
Based on a novel by A.J. Cronin, Carol Reed's first major film is set in a bleak coal mining town in northern England, where Robert (Edward Rigby) and Martha (Nancy Price) have struggled to give their son David (Redgrave) an opportunity for a better life and a university education.
Robert works in the mine with his younger son (Desmond Tester) and attempts to organize his fellow miners, who are working under dangerous conditions. While away at school, David meets Jenny (Margaret Lockwood),a vain young woman who has been rejected by Joe (Emlyn Williams), and now traps David into marriage.
When Joe, an unctuous type, renews his affair with Jenny, David leaves her and turns his attention to helping the miners back home, who have been forced to return to work after an aborted strike. David, who has ambitions of becoming an MP tries to rally support for the union, but to no avail.
At once topical and enduring, this powerful drama influenced by the social realism of the British documentary and greatly enhanced the growing reputation of Reed, then a young director. Shot partly in a colliery in Cumberland, this was also an important film for the young Michael Redgrave, who was still fresh from the stage (and from ‘The Lady Vanishes’).
(Tickets £8 to include pre-show glass of wine)
UK · 1940 · Carol Reed · 104min
