This time on The Forgotten, we've made the film under discussion available to watch, for free, below.
1948 was one of the great years of British film, with Powell & Pressburger, David Lean and others on top form. Terence Fisher, later to make his name at Hammer (Curse of Frankenstein, Horror of Dracula, etc.) was only just beginning his career, but he began it well: soon he would co-direct the gripping Hitchcockian yarn So Long at the Fair (1950), but before that came 40-minute short subject To the Public Danger, a thriller revolving around drunk driving.
As four characters meet in an English roadhouse and begin the kind of inebriate evening people fresh from WWII seemed to take in their strides, recklessness and arrogance leads towards inevitable doom, with the boozing accompanied by bullying, seduction, class prejudice, cowardice, paranoia and a slew of other unattractive qualities. The result is not so much mounting tension as an oppressive,...
1948 was one of the great years of British film, with Powell & Pressburger, David Lean and others on top form. Terence Fisher, later to make his name at Hammer (Curse of Frankenstein, Horror of Dracula, etc.) was only just beginning his career, but he began it well: soon he would co-direct the gripping Hitchcockian yarn So Long at the Fair (1950), but before that came 40-minute short subject To the Public Danger, a thriller revolving around drunk driving.
As four characters meet in an English roadhouse and begin the kind of inebriate evening people fresh from WWII seemed to take in their strides, recklessness and arrogance leads towards inevitable doom, with the boozing accompanied by bullying, seduction, class prejudice, cowardice, paranoia and a slew of other unattractive qualities. The result is not so much mounting tension as an oppressive,...
- 10/23/2014
- by David Cairns
- MUBI
Cheap Thrills, Double Bills, London
A reminder of the days when a trip to the cinema offered great value, with a full second feature instead of some trailers and an "ironic" ad for Orange, this season offers a chance for buffs to fill in the blanks on the CVs of stars such as Christopher Lee and Diana Dors – both in Penny And The Pownall Case – or directors such as Hammer's Terence Fisher, whose To The Public Danger is being shown. There are some rare gems to be found here: cheap, cheerful dramas/thrillers that give exploitation topics a polite, British spin.
BFI Southbank, SE1, Mon to 28 Dec
Phelim O'Neill
Swansea Love Story, London
Creating a heartwarming, engaging and even darkly amusing film about a group of junkies at the heart of Wales' heroin epidemic is a challenge but if anyone has the stones for it, it'll be Andy Capper and Leo Leigh,...
A reminder of the days when a trip to the cinema offered great value, with a full second feature instead of some trailers and an "ironic" ad for Orange, this season offers a chance for buffs to fill in the blanks on the CVs of stars such as Christopher Lee and Diana Dors – both in Penny And The Pownall Case – or directors such as Hammer's Terence Fisher, whose To The Public Danger is being shown. There are some rare gems to be found here: cheap, cheerful dramas/thrillers that give exploitation topics a polite, British spin.
BFI Southbank, SE1, Mon to 28 Dec
Phelim O'Neill
Swansea Love Story, London
Creating a heartwarming, engaging and even darkly amusing film about a group of junkies at the heart of Wales' heroin epidemic is a challenge but if anyone has the stones for it, it'll be Andy Capper and Leo Leigh,...
- 12/5/2009
- by Phelim O'Neill, Andrea Hubert
- The Guardian - Film News
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