Brighton Rock 1948

Movie for the Evening: Feature

“Brighton Rock”, 1948

The beach getaway town of Brighton, England, during and after WWII had a gangster under-class and Pinkie Brown (Richard Attenborough) epitomizes its sinister decay in John Boulting’s hoodlum classic “Brighton Rock”.

A newspaper man is sent to Brighton as a part of a gimmick to boost his newspaper’s circulation. The newspaper man had a history with the gang and their revenge leads to murder. A mess up in the murder develops into the ruin of the gang and sets Pinkie on a self-destructive course.

Pinkie is irredeemably bad and the young Attenborough inhabits the part, few film characters are portray as clearly and unremittingly as this. The relationship he has with a young waitress is selfish and cruel.

“Brighton Rock” makes all this real and a screen play by Graham Greene is top notch. Considered number one among the British hoodlum movies, this film, smooth and thoughtful, delivers.