Subject he was just doing his best for the story. Typically, he later told the scholarĬharles Thomas Samuels that he felt no particular sympathy toward Cronin's Most striking, though, is the less artful exteriorįootage of miners, pit-head, ambulances and wives: working-class snapshots then Interiors in the Fenwick house are haunted by the 'warning shadows'

Weaker than Pabst's, though the poignant character performances of Edward RigbyĪnd George Carney make a powerful impression.

These final sequences have prompted comparisons with G.W. Washed away by the drama of luckless miners trapped in shrinking air. By this time Jenny and Joe have vanished - commercial flotsam Tension returns once Scupperįlats is flooded. With a northern accent and a dust-smudged face. 'film studio' written all over it, in contrast to Redgrave's earnest efforts On the romantic triangle, Lockwood's performance as Jenny, though amusing, has The miners' lives and problems, featuring location imagery angled and cut in aįashion sometimes echoing 1930s documentaries. The film's sense of reality comes and goes. The script's negative treatment of the miners' union and the mine owner's Cronin's novel wasĬonsiderably truncated and softened: Censor approval must have been helped by Nationalisation propaganda gave Reed his first stab at serious subject-matter.Ĭritics were surprised to find sober tragedy in a drama released in Januaryġ940 though there are limits to the film's maturity. The budget was fixedĪt an enormous £100,000, partly spent on location shooting in Cumberland andĬronin's 700 pages of social observation, plot clichés, and mine The project collapsed with Schach's finances, to be resurrected by theĭistributors Grand National, with Carol Reed as director. Industrial relations in the mines made it an unlikely candidate for the censors'Īpproval. Look Down was proposed by producer Max Schach, though its treatment of Soon after its publication in 1935, a film of A.J. Meanwhile his son, David, attempts to make his own way in the world. Blackmur THE TWENTY novels and two collections of short stories divide. Veteran north-eastern miner Bob Fenwick leads a strike over safety standards at the Neptune Colliery.

The Stars Look Down by A.J. Cronin