This 'angry young man' (aka 'kitchen sink') drama was filmed in Ipswich England. The story's factory-town setting is similar to that of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning , but unlike Albert Finney's character in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning , the 'angry young man' in this film, played by Richard Attenborough, is more interesting and compelling to me. In fact, this powerful film ranks among my 'best new discoveries for the year.' I love it; would put it up there with The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner in this sub-genre; and highly recommend it to those who may have never seen it.
Tom Curtis (Richard Attenborough) lives in a mid-20th Century English industrial town where he works at the local factory. He has a cute Italian wife, Anna (Pier Angeli), and two young children; also, one of his fellow factory workers, Joe Wallace (Michael Craig), lives with his family in their modest flat. As the film opens, Tom learns that Anna is going to have another baby. Trying to get ahead and not having a lot to live on, he is mildly angry at first but soon happily settles down to being a father—again. His main pastime is being the captain of the factory's soccer team.
Political tension at the factory starts to rise when the shop steward Bert Connolly (Bernard Lee) hires an outside union agitator, Travers (Alfred Burke), to organize a closed shop at the factory. After FIRST having the employees vote on whether or not they would strike if management failed to meet their offer, he makes an offer to the works boss—hoping to cause a wildcat strike. The works boss, Davis (Geoffrey Keen) turns down offer--hoping to negotiate a compromise. This gives Conolly the necessary leverage to order the workers to strike. But, 39 employees, including Tom, fail to join the strikers and cross the picket line, continuing to work.
The so-called 'scabs' are ostracize for working, Further, they, and their families, are victimized by violence and terror, in town, and in their homes. Soon giving into the violence, even the 'scabs' join the strike---everyone but Tom who holds out as the 'lone wolf.' Labor calls off the strike when Travers learns that management has been offered a big building contract and that, politically, more can be gained from the company later—after the company has committed to the contract.
When the workers returns to the factory, Tom is punished by his co- workers by being 'sent to Coventry' (ie being ignored) at work, as he and his family are being terrorized at home: He is being given 'the angry silence' by not formerly backing the union's position. When local and national newspapers, and TV stations (similar to cable news stations today) start to report on his situation, the violence only continues to grow. Not only is he removed from the plant soccer team—his housemate, Joe, has to tell him--but one of his children is seriously hazed and brutalized by the children of other workers. Anna wants to leave and go to Italy--or even Australia where people are backing him for his bravery in standing alone against the masses.
Management is also feeling the pinch from the media attention on the company—fearing that the publicity from Tom's story may cause them to lose the building contract. The owner asks Davis to fire Tom or accept whatever the union wants. But, Davis tells the owner that Tom's firing would only make the company look WORSE in the pubic eye, causing the company to lose both the contract and the workers. Tom and his family are now caught in the middle of a vise-like trap between labor and management, with no way out...
This film is one of the most powerful dramas of 'mass think' that I have ever seen!! It's mob hysteria could be compared to the that of Fritz Lange's Fury, or The Ox-Bow Incident. The standing of one man against an overpowering group might be compared, on a less physical level, to 12 Angry Men. It is riveting from the beginning to the very end. There are no simple answers here: No polemic union victory as in Norma Rae; no 'organized mob' as in On the Waterfront. Management isn't bad. Unions per se aren't totally bad. What is bad, here, is apathy and the need to thoughtlessly conform to a herd mentality. Tom is both a victim and a hero for individuality in an age of mass production and mass hysteria.
Tom Curtis (Richard Attenborough) lives in a mid-20th Century English industrial town where he works at the local factory. He has a cute Italian wife, Anna (Pier Angeli), and two young children; also, one of his fellow factory workers, Joe Wallace (Michael Craig), lives with his family in their modest flat. As the film opens, Tom learns that Anna is going to have another baby. Trying to get ahead and not having a lot to live on, he is mildly angry at first but soon happily settles down to being a father—again. His main pastime is being the captain of the factory's soccer team.
Political tension at the factory starts to rise when the shop steward Bert Connolly (Bernard Lee) hires an outside union agitator, Travers (Alfred Burke), to organize a closed shop at the factory. After FIRST having the employees vote on whether or not they would strike if management failed to meet their offer, he makes an offer to the works boss—hoping to cause a wildcat strike. The works boss, Davis (Geoffrey Keen) turns down offer--hoping to negotiate a compromise. This gives Conolly the necessary leverage to order the workers to strike. But, 39 employees, including Tom, fail to join the strikers and cross the picket line, continuing to work.
The so-called 'scabs' are ostracize for working, Further, they, and their families, are victimized by violence and terror, in town, and in their homes. Soon giving into the violence, even the 'scabs' join the strike---everyone but Tom who holds out as the 'lone wolf.' Labor calls off the strike when Travers learns that management has been offered a big building contract and that, politically, more can be gained from the company later—after the company has committed to the contract.
When the workers returns to the factory, Tom is punished by his co- workers by being 'sent to Coventry' (ie being ignored) at work, as he and his family are being terrorized at home: He is being given 'the angry silence' by not formerly backing the union's position. When local and national newspapers, and TV stations (similar to cable news stations today) start to report on his situation, the violence only continues to grow. Not only is he removed from the plant soccer team—his housemate, Joe, has to tell him--but one of his children is seriously hazed and brutalized by the children of other workers. Anna wants to leave and go to Italy--or even Australia where people are backing him for his bravery in standing alone against the masses.
Management is also feeling the pinch from the media attention on the company—fearing that the publicity from Tom's story may cause them to lose the building contract. The owner asks Davis to fire Tom or accept whatever the union wants. But, Davis tells the owner that Tom's firing would only make the company look WORSE in the pubic eye, causing the company to lose both the contract and the workers. Tom and his family are now caught in the middle of a vise-like trap between labor and management, with no way out...
This film is one of the most powerful dramas of 'mass think' that I have ever seen!! It's mob hysteria could be compared to the that of Fritz Lange's Fury, or The Ox-Bow Incident. The standing of one man against an overpowering group might be compared, on a less physical level, to 12 Angry Men. It is riveting from the beginning to the very end. There are no simple answers here: No polemic union victory as in Norma Rae; no 'organized mob' as in On the Waterfront. Management isn't bad. Unions per se aren't totally bad. What is bad, here, is apathy and the need to thoughtlessly conform to a herd mentality. Tom is both a victim and a hero for individuality in an age of mass production and mass hysteria.