City of gold… Bitter Harvest (1963)

Patrick Hamilton’s 20,000 Streets Under the Sky has been adapted a number of times since this film most notably in a TV series featuring Sally Hawkins which captured a good deal more of the novel’s content.

Directed by Peter Graham Scott from a Ted Willis script, Bitter Harvest is a short, sharp shock that focuses on the price of ambition for a girl from the Valleys, Jennie Jones (Janet Munro) who’s life seems entirely governed by her choice in men. Or, at least, the person she decides to be around those men.

Janet Munro was a superb actress who enjoyed some success with Disney before establishing herself at home with notable performances alongside Dirk Bogarde in Sebastian and, before that, Edward Judd and Leo McKern in The Day the Earth Caught Fire. She’s is constantly on the edge of nervous agitation and carries considerable force with her ability to shift emotional direction in the blink of an eye. We’re never quite sure about her character’s capabilities and she surprises when curiosity leads her to break with home and ultimately her sure-thing boyfriend, to push herself as high up the social ladder as she can.

Janet Munro

Maybe there’s not enough remaining from the source material but Munro makes it work and she has some highly capable assistance from a superb set of cameos –  classy Alan Badel and the Northern screen goddess, Thora Hird - as well as John Stride as her steadfast boyfriend, Bob Williams.

Scott knew what to expect from his star and works backwards from her no-holds barred break-down at the start of the film when she staggers back form a night out to a muse cottage presumably provided by a lover and then proceeds to trash the place. Her exhausted, tear-streaked face barely focuses on the bathroom mirror and then we cut back… to Wales and her father’s shop… before London.

Mr Jones (Derek Francis) is dourly strict and can only envisage the same future for his daughter as his wife had endured. Then a smart, well-spoken man, Andy (Terence Alexander) enters their shop asking for directions. He offers a glimpse of another work as well as escape and the next time he is passing through Jennie and her pal Violet (Barbara Ferris) spend the evening with Andy and his pal Rex (Richard Thorp), with Jennie waking up the following morning in London near the dreary tracks of Paddington Station.

We are left to join the dots on what was lost the night before but Jennie has burnt her bridges and must face up to life in London. She certainly has the looks but has she really got a plan.

After Andy stand her up at a lovely-looking pub, she’s befriended by Bob the Barman (John Stride) who is everything the other men are not and who values Jennie not for who she wants to be but for what she is… and, for a while, this appears like it may well be enough. The two set up a home of brief happiness in the lodging house run by Mrs Jessup (Thora Hird) who quickly seizes the opportunity to raise the rent! Thora’s on top form!

But something has turned in Jennie and the sweet girl from the Valleys, influenced by advertising and the fine things she sees around her, wants more from life. Jennie wants to be an actress or at least a model and goes with one of their neighbours to a showbiz party where she hopes to attract interest and get a break. Well, she does and she doesn’t… Karl Denny (Alan Badel) merciless producer and power wielder, takes a shine to the pretty young thing and we’re left to form our own opinions on what happens next…

He uses Jennie and she drops Bob… money and the promise of fame overcoming friendship. It doesn’t have to be this way and the film’s tragedy is that Jennie couldn’t see it in time…

Dusty verdict: Janet Munro is superb in this film, both uncomfortable and believable, whilst John Stride, a fine actor, is also angsty enough about her refusal to commit to be a genuine character. If only she’d listened to him or someone… By the end I’m a little shocked at the mortality rates in early 60’s British cinema…

Bitter Harvest was shown of Talking Pictures TV, a terrific channel that is swelling my digital coffers with dozens of classy, Golden Age British films and TV programmes. Together with Renown Pictures they are revitalising vintage domestic film appreciation.

I watched the Strawberry Media DVD which is available from Amazon and all good retailers.

Old career in a new town... Brannigan (1975)

There are some films that just about scrape it onto this blog, there has to be something redeemable and a film vehicle for a near-seventy year old John Wayne has to be unlikely… and yet…

Brannigan is a British-made film that just about allows Duke Wayne to carry off a tough-guy role at 68. He’s helped by a great supporting cast as well as superb backdrops of London: another time-capsule film.

Directed by Douglas Hickox, Brannigan afforded Wayne the chance to ape the Clint Eastwood style (he had turned down Dirty Harry) and allows a fresh twist by transporting his unchanging cowboy act to Blighty: a horse-wrangler out of water as it were... There are repeated moments in the film which play on this from attempts to get Brannigan to not carry his gun and to follow native procedures. There’s also a nice running contest between the character and his British counterpart, Commander Sir Charles Swann (Richard Attenborough) which plays up every known cliché about the “special relationship”.

Richard Attenborough

Brannigan’s assigned liaison officer, Detective Sergeant Jennifer Thatcher (the lovely Judy Geeson) quotes her father in saying that there’s only three things wrong with “yanks”: “over-paid, over-sexed and over here…” But you know mutual respect won’t be far behind.

Judy Geeson and Duke

 It’s entertaining and undemanding fun and very well put together. There’s also a fine example of a hard-top e-type Jaguar and you can’t say further than that…

Lieutenant James Brannigan is a Chicago cop who has his own way of doing thing but (you guessed it…) he gets results. He’s tracking down one particularly nasty crime lord, Ben Larkin (John Vernon), who has been caught trying to flee to England. Somewhat against his will – and to the audience’s delight – Duke…sorry, Brannigan is sent to bring him back. Somehow we sense that it’s not going to be quite that simple… and the old dog’s unconventional methods will be all the more so in London Town…

Mel Ferrer and John Vernon

Brannigan arrives and is treated like a red-hot cinder by the locals as Swann and his number two, Insp. Michael Traven (John Stride – who was excellent in the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead I saw a few years later…in Manchester), struggle to reign him in. Miss Thatcher is altogether more understanding and there’s an under-current of fatherly affection between her and the old grump. But, where did they get that second name from? The “Milk Snatcher” was a shadow cabinet minister at the time…

Judy Geeson

Meanwhile the plot has really kicked in. A hit man is assigned to off Brannigan by Larkin’s team led by Mel Fields (Mel Ferrer) – he’s Gorman (Daniel Pilon) the nastiest in the business but at least he drives that e-type. Then Larkin is kidnapped from his health club by two Brit gangsters played by Charlie-the-Handle (James Booth) and Drexel (Del Henney) whose aim is to hold him to ransom.

James Booth and Del Henney keep watch

So now Brannigan has to help the Limeys save face as well as catch his man. The first attempt to snag the kidnappers fails as they extract the money from a drop in Piccadilly by drilling a hole beneath a post box.

But there are some lively police-procedurals as Brannigan and co set about scaring the truth out of the likes of Brian Glover and Tony Booth (Cherie’s dad) not to mention the far less threatening Tony Robinson – “look kids it’s Baldric!”, “Who?”, “Er… the guy out of Time Team!”, “Oh yeah…”

John Wayne and Tony Robinson

There’s also a classic bar brawl at a pub in Leadenhall Market in which Attenborough joins Wayne in slugging it out on that violent but harmless way of every good-humoured scrap since The Quiet Man: glassing with a smile and mutually respectful manliness all round.

Leadenhall Market shake-down

Then there’s a car chase which is very well executed and shows off some of the highlights of central London including Tower Bride over which the cars fly as the draw bridge lifts higher.

Jaguar E-Type on the attack

And, all the while Brannigan’s hit-man gets closer and closer to the kill, narrowly avoiding nailing Miss Thatcher as the dead-eyed cop reacts just in time to put him off.

The plot is well constructed as the main elements race to a satisfying conclusion as the double-crossing crosses over itself in the inevitable deserted offices of decaying docklands (probably now the home of gastro pubs and luxury flats).

Wayne still convinces and went on to make Rooster Coburn next, one of his better late period films. When I was younger I was less generous to his attempts to stay in the game but this was all he knew, from being an extra in silent films he worked for over 50 years in cinema.

Dusty verdict: Worth watching for the cars and the streets of 1974. There’s also a host of great British acting talent including cameos from Don Henderson and Lesley Anne Down. You can get the very reasonably-priced DVD here.

A couple of years later, The Squeeze showed a sleazier and more realistic side to London’s criminal classes, followed by others, but Brannigan helped keep the British crime flick alive at a time of struggle.

Lesley Anne Down

Brian Glover meets Duke