Flammes dans la rue

Coming six years before "guess who's coming to dinner " , "flame on the streets ' is much more convincing ;here one does not meet a bourgeois family whose daughter wants to marry a future Nobel Prize ;it takes place in the British low middle-class ; it all happens in one day ,on Guy Fawkes '.

The fifth of November is a judicious choice: it's time for celabration,merrymakings in the streets , but it also means alcohol, violence,interracial resentment which has been building up for years. Kathy Palmer's plan does not bode well in that context : to marry an educated black schoolteacher (Peter Lincoln ,check the surname) in the early sixties is a thing her mom -who blames her husband for not climbing up the social scale- would never accept ,in a month of Sundays . The dad 's attitude is more ambiguous : in the meeting , superbly played by John Mills , he delivers a liberal speech, urging the men from the union to stand together , and championing the promotion as a foreman of a colored man ;but when confronted to his daughter's plan , without being so openly racist as his wife , his finer feelings have vanished into thin air and he tells the young schoolmistress what she should "ideally " do.

In the streets , meanwhile ,hatred is simmering , the riot is brewing : not only the angry young white louts ,but also the colored girls , or the gossip ladies who "warn " Kathy's mom , nobody is prepared to accept peace,love and understanding .So Kathy 's predicament is mirrored by this town on fire ; given the hostile milieu ,the denouement cannot ,by any means,considered a happy end .There was still a hard road to hoe.

A look at racial tension back in the early 60's This film still carries a strong mention even in today's modern world Great cast , with excellent performances from John Mills and Sylvia Sims 10/10 Look out for it and watch if you get chance.

UK drama has working class Brits simmering under racial tensions: in the warehouses, the factories, even at the public pool--the catalyst being a hard-working black man who gets a coveted factory promotion over the petty, envious whites (wasn't this the same situation in "Black Legion" from 1937?). John Mills plays a union organizer who tries bringing peace to the locals but is confounded by the unexpected romance between his white daughter and a black teacher from the West Indies. Ted Willis adapted his play "Hot Summer Night", forgetting that screen material needs to be less theatrical, more subtle and sensitive. Each character spouts off with such pedagogic fervor, vigorously puffed up with their own righteous anger, that the main theme of tolerance is diffused (with that faux-calypso music playing, you'd think there would be more dancing than feuding!). OK melodrama, it beat "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?" to the screen by several years, and a few of the performances are thoughtfully rendered. Color film released by the The Rank Organisation was distributed to the States by Atlantic Pictures in black-and-white. ** from ****

Roy Ward Baker, who had a good track record for directing colourful films (eg: The Vampire Lovers), gives us an extremely interesting retrospective of racial tensions in London in the early 1960's with Flame In The Streets. Race issues still exist and it would be naive to pretend otherwise judging by some recent events in 2020 although mixed marriages seem to have cleared hurdles that were more of an issue in 1960 which is the dominant theme in this film. Sylvia Syms, never looking more beautiful, falls in love with a black colleague and wants to marry him, much to the aggravation of her prejudiced mother. Mum, played with gusto by Brenda De Banzie (never better) is shocked to her core when she discovers her daughter is seeing the young black man. Dad, played by John Mills is far more liberal and as a union leader, he's argued for equality in the workplace for recent immigrants and in a particularly punchy scene, fights for Earl Cameron to be promoted. Mr Cameron only recently passed away at the grand age of 102 by the way. What surprised me, looking back 60 years, is that the film seems so relevant still today with black and white issues. It will be better when things can eventually unite peacefully and I have seen improvements in my lifetime but we still have a long way to go otherwise we wouldn't still recognise some of the issues in Flame In The Streets so readily. It's a film that although dated is an interesting snapshot that many could learn from if they recognised the obvious human failings depicted in it, particularly from De Banzie's prejudice, some of the ugly thuggery carried out by white youths and the bad attitudes of some of John Mills' work colleagues. Beware also of offensive racial language although it would be dishonest if all these films were hidden away as we can learn from historical films like this and be aware.

It wasn't just in the USA that racial tension was rife in the 1960s, it was also pretty toxic for many living in urban Britain too. That's exemplified here by the young "Peter" (Johnny Sekka) who works at a factory where there's a sort of truce between the colours that's striven for by union man "Jacko" (John Mills) who just happens to be the father of "Kathie" (Sylvia Syms) who just happens to be the girlfriend of "Peter". Small world, but not an happy one. Her mother "Nell" (Brenda de Banzie) is more openly hostile to this pairing but dad isn't a great fan either. It's so much because they are racist in themselves, but more that they have a concern for their daughter in a big city where mixed-race relationships were distinctly frowned upon and "half-caste" babies even more so. These aren't just paper-based threats, we can see from the stirring that goes on at their workplace that the young locals are just as keen on causing trouble; making their lives awkward and even dangerous. It's all building to a Guy Fawkes night bonfire that's likely to burn more than old wood from bomb-damaged buildings. There's some good and poignant writing underpinning this drama and the solid efforts of Mills, Syms, Sekka and Earl Cameron help condense quite a lot that's visceral into this tautly directed feature. It's de Banzie, though, who stands out for me. The conflicted mother whose not just concerned about her daughter, but also about the state of a marriage that she feels has systematically neglected her at the expense of her husband's union career and her family. That all comes to a boil too, leaving us with quite a lively and thought-provoking series of conclusions. It's violent at times, but ultimately Roy Ward Baker has let the words and the imagery do most of the heavy lifting here, and I thought it a potent piece of British cinema.