Tanz in den Abgrund

England was in a terrible state in the late forties: the cost of the war had bankrupted the country, industry and employment was decimated and crime rates were through the roof. Not too different to America in the early thirties. So, to cheer us up - to give us some escapist entertainment Rank Films gave us this misery fest!

It's no GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933! Optimistic is not an adjective anyone would use to describe this but nevertheless it will keep you glued to the screen. It's not escapist fun, it's not sexy but it is beautifully made.

You'll be cringing as Gwen, 'the good time girl' played brilliantly by Jean Kent, makes stupid decision after stupid decision plunging her life spiralling down the toilet. Virtually every man she pairs up with is worst than the last one - indeed it doesn't paint a pleasant picture of men at all. What it does do is paint a picture of a land where the victory jubilation has given way to an utterly grim and cold reality.

If you've watched lots of pre-code Hollywood movies you'll be familiar with such plots but because it feels much more realistic than a lot of what Hollywood made during those lean years of the thirties, it feels more personal. You can really empathise with poor Gwen and think; there but by the grace of God go I.

Personally I think this would benefit from not having what feels like a morality lecture bolted on to the beginning and the end but the main body of this film is incredibly compelling. Unless you've just watched BICYCLE THIEVES, which manages to be even more relentlessly grim, you're not going to feel especially happy after watching this but it's very satisfying. It's a superbly well made film.

In one of her earliest roles young teen Diana Dors is being given a lecture by social worker Flora Robson on the evils of wilful disobedience to her parents. Flora decides to best make her point by example and she chooses to tell Diana the story of Jean Kent and her downward spiral from when she started out as a teen delinquent just like Dors.

It begins innocently enough, Kent has a job in a pawnshop and she borrows some of the jewelry to wear on a date. The owner catches her and threatens to report her to the police. But he'll forget it with a quick roll in the hay. She goes home and dad whales the tar out of her. After that it's a lot of poor choices combined with being in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people.

Kent does a fine job even though she's 27 years old as the troubled young post war British girl. Along the way she meets up with playboy Dennis Price, club owner Herbert Lom, hood Peter Glenville, and finally deserter American soldier Bonar Colleano who puts the final touch to a short but violent criminal career.

A good ensemble cast backs Kent. But the story is about her and she's memorable in her part.

Jean Kent plays Gwen--a poor girl from a screwed up family. Her sense of right and wrong are sadly diminished and her father is abusive. So, she leaves home at 16 and tries to make her way in the world. But, she always seems to hang out with low-lifes--the sort of jerks that are constantly preying on society. Eventually, she's caught for one of their crimes but she runs away from prison. At this point, she's a mess but she's not necessarily evil. But, soon after escaping, she begins to hit the bottle and becomes a very active and willing participant in a life of crime. And, in the process, she becomes a total mess.

All in all, an entertaining film. And, while it could have been made as a purely sensationalistic movie, this one is able to tell a gritty story and yet not revel in it. Enjoyable and entertaining.

The thought that people like Jimmy Rosso exist makes my skin crawl. While the movie was pretty good, I did find one glaring plot hole. This was during the hearing in juvenile court. It came down to he said, she said. She said that Jimmy had put her up to pawning the jewelry, and he said she had asked him to. This leaves reasonable doubt. The tie-breaker was the fact that she had used her own name when pawning the jewelry, which is consistent with innocence.

Michael Farrell's testimony was disregarded in its entirety when he disclosed that he had sheltered the girl for the night. The magistrate took the word of the oily Jimmy Rosso over the word of the accused and that of Michael Farrell, who had a job and a flat, as opposed to Rosso, who had nothing, and was implicated in a slashing.

Hard to believe it was like that, but I imagine it was.

Good Time Girl (1948)

This movie has so many turns and developments it's hard to remember everything by the time you get to the sensational terrible end. A girl leaves home to escape her father's beatings and one thing leads to another down the line. It's post-war England, and there are fun echoes of similar post-war American movies, complete with thugs and nightclubs and G.I.s on the lam.

This leading actress Jean Kent starts off seeming a little strained, and you should make sure you give the movie a chance. It only gets better as it goes. It never quite strains credibility even though the events gets pretty unsavory. The photography, much of it at night, is vivid and fluid, the acting generally excellent, and the strength of ideas is wonderful.

This really is a harrowing tale of social mis-steps all along. It's meant to be a cautionary tale, too. Literally. It's all told in a flashback to another young woman who is about to repeat the fate of the main character. Kent turns out to be pretty amazing in this film, ranging through several phases of her young life on camera--from innocent girl to hardened juvenile to a kind of moll without a gang.

I liked it a lot.