Hindle Wakes

Extraordinary that there had been two silent and one talkie versions earlier - a testament to the strength of the original play. It raised the, for its time, very controversial question of "The Single Standard": should women have the same freedoms as men? By 1952 however the boldness and independence of the central character's actions had been largely overtaken by changes in society especially the sexual licence during wartime, consequently it had lost its controversial edge.

In this production the drama revolves more round the parents - they were of a generation that still held to Edwardian values even if their offspring didn't. Shorn of its controversial edge but retaining the questions of differences of class or rather money, the part that does remain is a well played modest domestic drama involving the parents.

As another reviewer has pointed out the Lancashire mill girl daughter speaks and dresses like a débutante, indistinguishable from her upper class love "rival" - film companies apparently at the time obliged actresses to lose all trace of regional or working class accents. Small wonder the revolution of kitchen sink realism in play and film occurred within less than 4 years.

The earlier versions including the silent ones are rated higher than this probably because they were closer to the time when the story would have been controversial and highly charged. However now is probably the time for a period revival with its theme of a strong and independently minded working class young woman defying convention and self-interest.

An experienced British cast star in this melodrama of a young mill-working girl on a seaside holiday with her friend. After a night at a dance hall, she hooks up with the son of a local mill owner and they have a clandestine time. All goes well until her friend is killed in a (frankly hilarious) boating accident, their tryst is discovered and they have to deal with the consequences. It's quite a nicely filmed period piece illustrating working class 1950s England and revealing the last vestiges of class-based snobbery; but the script is weak and wordy. Joan Hickson stands out as the matriarchal mother of the girl and Ronald Adam as the rather pompous father of the boy.

Lisa Daniely is a mill girl in the Lancashire town of Hindle. On the week of her annual holiday, she goes with a friend to Blackpool, where she encounters Brian Worth, the son of owner of the mill where she works -- and an old friend of her father, Leslie Dwyer. She goes with him for a week at a hotel. When this is discovered, confusion and morality break loose.

It's at least the sixth screen version of Stanley Houghton's 1912 play; I count three earlier movie versions, and a couple of TV adaptations. This one spends a third of its length with cameraman Geoffrey Faithfull making what looks to be an advertising movie for Blackpool's tourist industry.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the story, its point and its position as a key work in the Manchester school, it's not so good. Miss Daniely doesn't even attempt a Lancashire accent, and those who insist on doing "the right thing" seem old-fashioned and small-minded. There's no sense of morality to be punctured, just reflex action and self-interest; even Ronald Adams as Jeffcote, who's meant to be proponent of the old morality, is largely reduced to a straw man. He tells his old friend Dwyer that the man who's wronged Miss Daniely will do the right thing before discovering it's his own son, and his insistence after discovering it seems a bit insincere for all its swiftness.

This is the sixth or seventh version of this show I have seen, including a later television version from the 1970s and a couple of stage versions. It suffers from its post-war attitude that of course, the times they are a-changing, and there's no real sense, even as she speaks the lines, that Miss Daniely has a skilled trade that makes her independent of any man. She's simply looking for a better one than the weak and self-indulgent Worth, one who will adore her utterly, and perhaps give her a black eye.

Beautiful film, well acted and great to watch. Wonderful British character actors, all having a great time. All the factories up north and Scotland I think, had their two week break at Blackpool - not at once I hope.

I loved the scene when the crowd are on the platform heading for the train and Bill Travers chats to a girl and puts his hand somewhere he shouldn't - she makes a cheerful reprimand, hand removed and he's leant his lesson.

Loved seeing Britain's history, loved the dance hall scenes.

A decent insight into the social life and attitudes of the 40's 50's in Britain. However it's let down by some ridiculous casting, namely the gorgeous Lisa Daniely cast as a Lancashire Mill workers daughter with an accent straight out of a Surrey finishing school.