Flammes dans la rue

Considering this was made over 60 years ago it still packs a powerful punch, not least because of the use of extreme racial language which is not considered PC today.

The sound and vision is amazing. It could have been made last week.

Sylvia Syms and John Mills give stellar performances.

I wonder how it would be received today by the snowflake generation.

The fights at the end, possibly inspired by the 1958 Notting Hill Riots, somewhat distracted from the real issues within the film. These were about relationships and prejudice, non more so than Brenda de Banzie's shameful character.

Historically this is a very interesting and important film.

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.

This film is more of a social document than an entertaining piece of film making.It was made just 3 years after the infamous Notting Hill Riots.This was at a time when immigrants were just starting to settle in the Uk and met some resistance from the local population.I would add that prejudice was still rife in the population at the time.Both myself at school and my father in public office suffered anti semitism.So this country was good for a good shake up.I doubt that this film did much to advance the cause.It is just so dull at times i am sure that it would not have done that well commercially at the time.It is odd to note that John mills here plays Sylvia Sims father when a couple of years earlier in "Ice Cold In Alex" he portrayed her potential lover.

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.

This film is a very enjoyable and courageous film about racism in London in the early 1960s. Apparently, there was a lot of negative feeling towards West Indians living there--and it's all quite similar to the feelings in much of the US at the same time.

The first portion of the film involves workers and their union. A major problem is that a lot of white workers are resentful of blacks--especially when they are placed in positions of authority. One of the union reps, Jacko Palmer (John Mills), believes in promoting people according to their merits--and goes to bat for these people.

Ironically, at the same time this is happening, Jocko's daughter is dating a Jamaican man. She is uneasy about how people will treat her but she loves the man and wants to marry him. When she tells her 'liberal-minded family', they show themselves to by hypocritical butt-heads--and the mother is truly vile in the way she talks about blacks and shows herself to be a shameful mother. How is all this to work out by the end of the film?

I liked the film and appreciate that it didn't pull its punches. I love "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" but at times it did seem a bit too sanitary and 'nice'. In contrast, this British film used extremely disturbing and graphic language--and better showed the ugliness of racism. Well worth seeing.