Gray's performance as the luckless waitress Rose led to her being offered a contract with. Maybe that is why many people did not rate this movie highly. Pinkie warns Rose not to speak about the person who left the card, and as part of gaining her confidence, asks her out on a date. In the original novel and the 1947 film, Hale was a journalist who had been investigating the gang's activities. He gives Rose his gun and tries to get her to shoot herself first. Pinkie convinces Rose he will soon be hanged and the two of them should commit suicide in order to always stay together. Colleoni has also paid off Pinkie and Dallow to leave town, and they go for a final drink with Rose before departing.
I thought all the main actors gave edgy and compelling performances. From the safety of being indoors, of course. Media via Magnola Pictures, Magnolia Pictures. At one point, when an ominous man named Red Casey Adams stumbles onto the scene, Wendy manages to reveal her position and lose her radio in one fell swoop. Every twig snapping or leaf rustling is a predator looming. Then you will know just how much depth this film chose to omit.
I hope it will inspire those who have not already done so to read the novel. Joffe seems to have little clue in directing actors there are some great actors here giving cringe-inducing performances , and the plot mechanics are amateurishly worked out a car stalls conveniently allowing time for a character to get inside it, whereupon it starts working again. Body at Brighton Rock doubles-down on the mystery of the dead body and the circumstances that led this poor sap to die at the feet of a tall rock. After being chased through the streets and lanes of Brighton, Hale accidentally meets Ida again on the Palace Pier, but eventually Pinkie murders Hale. Unfortunately, Wendy, while well-meaning and determined, really is something of a ditz.
First, she gets very lost after misplacing her map. Attenborough would have been 24 in 1947, and looked younger. Pinkie visits the restaurant and discovers that the sweet, naive young waitress Rose found the card and noticed that Spicer, not Fred, had left it. To be clear: I found all of this extremely relatable. Upon seeing the police, Rose throws the gun into the water and Pinkie tries to run away, but falls from the pier to his death. I did manage to get through it, but did press the fast forward button on several occasions.
Joffé changed the setting from the 1930s to the 1960s, during the era. Ida Arnold, a plump, kind-hearted and decent woman, is drawn into the action by a chance meeting with the terrified Hale after he has been threatened by Pinkie's gang. Some reviewers, as well as author Greene, also objected to the final scene as sentimental and contrary to the original book's darker ending. Can a film that boasts some excellent character actors really be that dodgy? Watch out for Pinkie grabbing Rose and yanking her down the Pier. As with Attenborough before him Sam Riley's Pinkie is intense, dangerous and teeters on the edge of sanity. The 1947 film was set during a sunny summer Bank Holiday; this version appears to have been shot in winter, with Brighton largely deserted by holidaymakers.
Not a bad film, but not up to what Richard Attenborough starred in. Rose who falls for bad boy Pinkie seemed too dim and snivelling to care about and Pinkie had so little charm I couldn't care less what happened to him. Much as I admire the Boultings' film, however, I have to admit that the newcomer has many virtues of its own. There is a religious and moral agenda in this picture which if recognized may disturb some viewers. Hurt plays the bookmaker Phil Corkery, who has a more important role in this adaptation than he does in the book. If he could have alternated his cold unsmiling thuggishness with some charm, shown Rose a little tenderness some vulnerability even, that would have made her falling for him, and her naive notion that she could save him more convincing, and maybe made his cruelty and occasional physical violence toward her more shocking. Whatever the reason, it's always good to see a film based on a Graham Greene novel, like The Third Man, This Gun for Hire, The Quiet American, and many more.
So that her friend can stay back and flirt with a cute guy, she offers to swap into that tough assignment, heading out into the woods. However, owing to poor reviews, it failed to get a transfer. This is a film about anger and loss, about opportunity and ambition, and crime - and the elements that Graham Greene satirized so brilliantly in his novel are there - the Catholicism post-Evelyn Waugh, the rise of the working-class with money, and above all, desperate lonely early 20s love. The characters, the story line all inhabit this earlier period, none of it 'fits' in the 1960s theme park on offer here. To make matters worse, she stumbles onto a dead body and finds out she must spend the night there guarding it until the park rangers arrive.
In fact most of the high rise flats were not built until later in the 1960s. When he records a 45 rpm vinyl record and gives it to Rosie, it is clear that the hoodlum does not feel anything for Rosie but hate. And it honors its influences well, packing its pieces into a tight plot that explodes in a violent and exciting finale. Well here is the truth. Riley, Riseborough, Mirren, and Hurt do quite well by their roles. We know this because we see her showing up late to the morning meeting and her colleagues doubt her ability to get a tough job like replacing signs along a challenging trail.