published on May 07, 2024 in blog

The Angry Silence

Production: Beaver. Director Guy Green; Producer Richard Attenborough, Bryan Forbes; Writer Bryan Forbes; Camera Arthur Ibbetson Editor Anthony Harvey; Music Malcolm Arnold
Crew: (B&W) Extract of a review from 1960. Running time: 95 MIN.
With: Richard Attenborough Pier Angeli Michael Craig Bernard Lee Alfred Burke Penelope Horner

The Angry Silence details the impact of industrial unrest on individuals, told with passion, integrity and guts, but without false theatrical gimmicks. Apart from the message, there is a solid core of entertainment produced by taut writing, deft direction and topnotch acting.

Plot concerns a worker in a factory where there has been no trouble until a political troublemaker moves in. Insidiously he stirs up unrest, makes one of the workers his catspaw, creates a wildcat strike and then quietly moves on to spread his poison in other factories. The main victim of the strike is played by Richard Attenborough who, because he refuses to be pushed around, is sent to Coventry (shunned by his workmates) and is beaten up, and his family intimidated.

Original story by Richard Gregson and Michael Craig has been skilfully written for the screen by Bryan Forbes. Perhaps the end is slightly contrived, but Guy Green has directed with quiet skill, leaving the film to speak for itself.

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Attenborough, as the quiet little man who just wants to be left alone to grapple with his home problems, has done nothing better on the screen for a long time. That goes, too, for Pier Angeli as his wife. Here she is a creature of flesh and blood, unhappily involved in a problem that she cannot understand. Michael Craig, as Attenborough’s best friend, is also in his best form.

1960: Nomination: Best Original Screenplay

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