Bitter Harvest

Saw this at the Dominion, Twickenham, Middlesex, in November 1963 - it was the B-movie to a film I've forgotten - I happened to see Bitter Harvest second in the programme. I enjoyed the London setting of the film - Jenny has a room overlooking the railway tracks at Paddington but the film had an overall feeling of terrible sadness and waste - I went and looked at the dark river Thames flowing under the footbridge to Eel Pie island - then I went home and heard that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. So that's what I was doing when...

Perhaps somewhat dated by today's standards, but, nevertheless, an interesting tale about a girl from Wales who ends up in London and then begins what she perceives to be her climb up the ladder of success. Each time she meets a new person, the viewer learns a little bit more about her personality. Where will it all end?

I don't know how I've missed this little gem. The terrific lost talent of Janet Munro and a whole host of top notch actors of the time like the acerbic Thora Hird and the tender John Stride give great performances here. The story is a natural successor to the gritty black and white Bryanston kitchen sink dramas of the late 50s early 60s. It sits well too with pre swinging 60s films like Alfie. A perfect snapshot of the social and sexual mores of the time. A special mention too for the beautiful colour cinematography and the evocative London locations. I don't think you'll be disappointed

This road-to-ruin melodrama is surprisingly watchable if you don't expect too much. The storyline is totally predictable, the characters little more than cliches, the colour lurid and I thought I detected some heavy-handed editing as 3rd-billed Alan Badell has only a few lines in a couple of scenes while uncredited Thora Hird (fresh from her triumph in "A Kind of Loving") has much more screentime as a grasping landlady.

The stunning Eastmancolor photography of Ernest Steward, Acker Bilk's swanky Jackie Gleason like score, (particularly the lush main theme) and location shooting in London, do much to distinguish this cautionary tale of a young woman treading down the well worn primrose path.

Janet Munro convinces as a the naive Welsh rustic, ("Jennie Jones") after La Dolce Vita, to which end she tosses decency aside, and heads to the big city, in her pursuit of a theatrical career. That her career is only to be that of "kept woman" is the discovery leading to the titular harvest.

Performances are all very apt, (particulary Francis Matthews, who nails the characterization of a louche libertine)and Director Peter Graham Scott certainly keeps our interest.

But just when one is most absorbed, most ready to watch Jennie's world unravel, the film ends, and one comes away feeling slightly cheated, with the sense that this MIGHT have been a great film, with a running time of 30 more minutes.

Still, it invites and deserves consideration alongside "Darling," and "Taste of Honey," as films that were also exploring unsavoury misfits in swinging 60's Great Britain.