Pink String and Sealing Wax

Robert Hamer was reunited with two of the stars of 'Dead of Night' on this gaslight Victorian melodrama very different from the contemporary fare on which the reputation of Ealing Studios now rests. Hamer was to return to this era in 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' bringing along his distinctive world-weary brand of cynicism that totally lacks the nostalgic flamboyance of the bodice-rippers with which Gainsborough were synonymous. Most of the women are manipulative and mercenary and most of the men are either weaklings or feckless spongers; while different but equal in their sheer nastiness are Googie Withers as a hip-swinging floozie who's eyes light up as she (SLIGHT SPOILER COMING:) administers strychnene and Mervyn Johns as a bible-spouting domestic bully who watches murder trials for pleasure, practises vivisection and deplores '"the modern tendency towards short sermons'.

Producer: Michael Balcon. An Ealing Studios Production. Following the huge success of "Kind Hearts and Coronets" on the American art circuit, this film was belatedly released by Pentagon Pictures Corporation in the U.S.A. in 1950. New York opening at the Art Theatre (sic): 3 October 1950 (sic). U.K. release through General Film Distributors: 7 January 1946. Australian release through British Empire Films: 12 December 1946. 8,301 feet. 92 minutes. Cut to 75 minutes in the U.S.A. (Available on a 7/10 Optimum DVD). SYNOPSIS: Victorian domestic crime drama, set in Brighton. COMMENT: Attractively in period with lavish production values, sets and costumes, directed with a meticulous attention to detail, but failing somewhat on the personal side. Although the dialogue is commendably natural and realistic, the characters are stock, one- dimensional figures that even skillful performances by Johns, Withers and Jackson cannot wholly disguise, while the lesser roles are simply played as caricatures — albeit well-played by such as Marsh and Piper. Alas, neither Sally Ann Howes nor Jean Ireland are particularly appealing and too much footage is given to them. Also Johns' more humanistic approach in the final reel is hard to swallow and the conclusion itself is well-nigh incredible. Still, it's a beautifully photographed and evocatively nostalgic period pic.

What is it about Brighton? It seems to have become the nexus of corruption, violence and crime in British film, and, with 'Brighton Rock' a year or so later, this film established the city as the home of British Noir. It may be a slice of Victorian Sensation Fiction adapted for the screen, but the plot is pure Film Noir. Googie Withers is the Femme Fatale, luring a disillusioned young man into a plot to kill her husband, but ultimately undone by circumstance. Gordon Jackson is a more virtuous hero than either Fred MacMurray in 'Double Indemnity' or John Garfield in 'The Postman Always Rings Twice', unlike them innocent of his paramour's cold blooded scheming but like them crucially providing the key to Getting Away With It. Quite obviously, this film isn't up to the standard of those two true Noirs, particularly Billy Wilder's classic; there's too many subplots fighting for attention - Jean Ireland's singing ambitions, Sally-Anne Howes' Animal Rights antics, Mervyn Johns' education in sensitivity - and they all ultimately fall by the wayside, payed nothing but lip service in the final scene. Unfortunately, they detract from the main plot enough to weaken it - it doesn't get enough screen time, and the resolution feels just a little too easy. Googie Withers, however, is clearly having great fun as one of the British screen's few true Femme Fatales - her only real rivals are Joan Greenwood in 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' and the scenery chewing Margaret Lockwood in 'The Wicked Lady'. She has a remarkable face - sensual but not conventionally beautiful - and she was never more lovingly shot than she was here by Robert Hamer. She's one of the few British stars who could convincingly play a tough, working class landlady, trading insults and blows with her husband, but with the allure to fascinate both naive youths and seasoned womanisers (Greenwood would have been too refined, Lockwood too obviously a man-eater). She's so good that she unbalances the film - she has so much appeal that her defeat leaves a sour taste in the mouth, and so strong that we can't believe that she'd simply give in as she does. It's a common problem that the wicked women of the forties and fifties - and just as relevantly, of Victorian Melodrama - are so much more vital and entertaining than their patronising male victims or vapid female rivals that the endings seem too moralistic by half. I want them to win. The one flaw in 'Double Indemnity' is Barbara Stanwyck's final, fatal change of heart. Much better for her to have gone out like Jane Greer in 'Out of the Past', a trail of dead men in her wake. Nobody else matches Withers, although Jean Ireland isn't as bland as the role she is playing, and Mervyn Johns is convincingly starchy as the tyrannical patriarch. Gordon Jackson is likable, particularly in his scenes of dissolution, but from whom did he inherit that Scottish accent? Sally-Anne Howes borders on the annoying, but that's the part she's playing. Mary Merrall is dignified as the mother, and good in her quiet confrontations with her husband, but she has little else to do. Catherine Lacey is superlative in the small but significant role of a 'respectable' barfly - she turns out to be more than just comic relief. Hamer's direction is unshowy, but gets the most out of the period sets. If only he could have stripped down the script and adapted the film to respond more to Googie Withers' performance, this could have been a minor classic. As it is, it pales next to Ealing's comedies, but certainly has its moments. There's no other film quite like it.

As the abused wife of a local pub owner, Googie Withers decides to take matters into her own hands when she discovers that a young patron is enamored of her and utilizes that as a way of framing someone else for the murder of her husband. Gordon Jackson is the young innocent man, the son of an abusive pharmacist (Mervyn Johns) and has learned a lot about the pharmacy business from his father who keeps the family under his thumb. As Johns' quiet tempered wife, Mary Merrall is as equally abused by her husband as Withers, maybe not physically, but certainly psychologically. Sally Ann Howes is another member of the family, desiring a singing career, but refused to pursue that by her father. When Garry Marsh, Withers' husband, dies, she uses this opportunity to blackmail Johnsin order to protect his son, and for once in his life as the head of a family, Johns must face his own brutality in order to protect his family from a woman of ill repute. Certainly, there is audience sympathy with Withers for being married to such a brute, but her actions as she becomes more desperate makes her an excellent femme fatale and much more despicable than when she started. Withers is mesmerizing, andit's fun to watch her build up to her crime and slowly fall apart as she realizes that the hangman maybe ahead for her. Johns is very good as well, similar to the father in "The Barretts of Wimpole Street", yet more strict because of his patriarchal pride than what is really inside his soul. Merrall's quiet dignity and support of her children behind her husband's back is very touching, and when she finally stands up to her husband, you really want to cheer her on. This film is practically perfect in every detail with an excellent script and terrific art direction. It truly is up there with the Gainsborough melodramas what, and Withers is a worthy counterpart to her.

Don't be fooled by the silly title, this is no flimsy, lightweight piece but rather a lurid, moralistic tale taking in adultery, murder, blackmail and suicide within its tightly-wrapped 90 minutes. The action is set in late Victorian-era Brighton and framed by the local newspaper editor dictating recent town events to his copy-writer. It's fair to say this was a heavy-news day as we are flash-backed and introduced to the two town background settings for the story, the first being the local pub, run by a boozy landlord who drinks himself to a stupor to overlook his tarty wife's extra-marital affairs, particularly her current one with the appropriately-named dapper Dan, a handsome but married dandy of the insincere type. When the barman knocks her about once too many times for her perceived indiscretions the feisty wife hatches a plan to clear a better path for her and Dan which naturally doesn't bode well for her old man. The other background setting is the family of the town coroner, the unforgiving, Puritanical Mr Sutton who rules his loveless house with a rod of iron in his bible-punching zeal, squashing the singing ambitions of his daughter, the romantic dreams of his impressionable young son and worst of all, the swine, the guinea-pig pets of his youngest daughter, which he instead plans to dissect for scientific research. There's only so much such a put-upon family can take however and they all proceed to quietly rebel in their own way against papa's iron-will authority, his seemingly docile wife quietly but tellingly informing her husband of her resistance over breakfast, the daughters secretly attend the concert of a famous singer who is visiting the town, with the intention of catching her ear by giving an impromptu public audition after the show and most significantly, the young son, his hopes of marrying his sweetheart dashed by dad, who wanders into the pub one night and sets his puppy-dog eyes on the figure of the landlord's alluring wife. The two elements are nicely bound up together, no doubt with the pink string and sealing wax of the title and by the end the murdering widow has run her race, though not before a game attempt to shift the blame elsewhere and in an even bigger turnabout, the flinty old patriarch has changed his outlook towards his family, serving up a nice bow with which to tie up all the loose ends, in the process neatly reintroducing the newspaper article device introduced at the beginning. Featuring in its cast two future doyens of British TV, Googie "Within These Walls" Withers as the scheming wife, her bosom heaving as she imperiously cuts a swathe through the menfolk in her wake until she takes it too far and the young Gordon "Upstairs Downstairs" / "The Professionals" Jackson as the simpering, lovelorn youth who falls under her spell. There are other good performances too, notably Mervyn Johns as the unyielding father, Mary Merrall as his long-suffering wife and John Carol who plays the heartless Dan, he and Withers possible fore-runners to the warring Dirty Den and Angie characters in the 80's BBC soap-opera "Eastenders". I enjoyed Robert Hamer's direction, besides the tidy ending, I liked the way he used the pub lush, always asking for her penn'orth of gin, to comment on and indeed at times move along the action. All in all, a highly enjoyable period melodrama well worth discovering and unwrapping.

London Live TV station are currently running a season of Ealing Films and the subject was one produced in 1945, a year from which several notable films were produced.I am a fan of beautiful raven haired film star actresses of the 1940s and in her Victorian tight fitting dress and bustle with black velvet choker. Googie certainly sizzled.Although not a conventional beauty like Jennifer Jones, Hedy Lamarr, Vivien Leigh, Ava Gardner etc, she certainly sizzled as the alluring wife of the drunk pub owner (Garry Marsh).Gordon Jackson had to suppress his natural Scottish accent for a film set in Brighton playing a rather naive role, a bit like he did in "Millions Like Us" (1943).I endorse the sentiments of user comments above and see no point in explaining the plot again. Mervyn Johns was to step up a few gears when he played Dr.Forrester the Butcher of Ravensbruck, a Nazi Scientist in "Counterblast"(1948).Here he just plays on overbearing, rather tyrannical Victorian father who reminds his wife that under the law at the time, her money and property devolves to him.This was to change by the Married Womens Property Act of 1884.For a connoisseur of 1940s films it was a pleasant surprise that London Live transmitted this film on TV and I awarded it 7/10.

Having read the reviews below, I think this film has received short shrift from the reviewers, so I give it a 10 because I was totally won over by the suspense. Perhaps it is because the reviewers did not get too immersed in the story line as Hamer intended or that they had preconceived notions about the actors as indicated by their unfair criticisms. I thought the actors held up pretty well in their roles, totally compelling and the dialogue highly entertaining. In particular Googie Withers who I felt gave her best appearance worthy of an Oscar were she to qualify. Jean Ireland and Sally Ann Howes provided the lighter side of the drama counterbalanced by the religious fanaticism of Mervyn Johns as the strict patriarch. All in all I found the film very absorbing and at times even riveting.

Excellent acting from the lead players, (especially from Mervyn Johns as the puritanical Victorian pater familias and Googie Withers as the pub landlady and murderess), and a good supporting cast as well mean that this Victorian-era pot boiler set in Brighton could have been something special, given the right direction. Unfortunately, though, it lacks this latter quality and the plot development is disjointed and lacks the necessary twists and thrills to have done the job. What results is a very average, Saturday afternoon matinee thriller, which leaves you thinking of the many ways it could have been improved upon. Perhaps a film studies seminar could use it for this purpose? 6/10.

The detective plot is never really suspenseful , eminently predictable , and sententious at that ;after the first sequence ,in which Sutton did not spare a thought for the woman he helped send to the gallows,one could expect a more convincing backlash. Therefore ,the most interesting side is the depiction of a Victorian -era petit bourgeois family ,where the holier-than-thou father rules his son and daughters with a rod of iron .They are not allowed to follow their dreams so it will have serious repercussions on the naive son ,who's denied the woman he loves and finds solace with an adultress ; one scene sums up this fossilized milieu in an admirably succint style: for the Lent ,the girls have to recite some kind of act of contrition ! The stand-out is arguably Googie Withers ,who ,in her last scenes ,literally mesmerizes the viewer ; four years later ,she would blow Gene Tierney off the screen in Dassin's "night and the city" ,not a small feat.

Pearl (Googie Withers) is unhappily married. She is having an affair with the unscrupulous Dan (John Carol) and befriends David Sutton (Gordon Jackson) who works at his father Edward's (Mervyn Johns) chemist shop. A chemist shop gives you access to poisons........so guess what Pearl has in mind for husband Joe (Garry Marsh)? Can she get away with her plan...? Mervyn Johns, John Carol and Googie Withers put in the best performances. In fact, the whole cast are good, apart from Sally Ann Howes who plays "Peggy" and, despite a couple of funny moments, is as wooden as ever. Even the comedy character of "Miss Porter" played by Catherine Lacey is on the right side of irritating. Unfortunately, the story only develops when Pearl is on screen. There are 2 definite parts to the story and the better episodes take place at the pub. What a shame that large sections of the film are devoted to family life at the Sutton household. We really don't need the storyline concerning the 2 daughters, Victoria (Jean Ireland) and Peggy. Mervyn Johns is a good enough actor to portray tyrannical power without back-up from these women. Victoria wants to pursue a singing career against her father's wishes. After being subjected to her shrill voice on more than one occasion, the audience can only take his side in this matter. There is one very cringeworthy scene where we are subjected to her singing the whole of "There's no place like home" to a professional singer and it's just terrible. She sings on several more occasions in which she just becomes excruciatingly annoying. We even have to home in on her voice during a church scene where the congregation are singing a hymn......Stop it!......She sounds crap! I was slightly let down by the ending to this film - it seemed a cop-out. I wanted to see a trial and maybe a final twist - I think the best option for Pearl would have been to leave town sharpish! Despite the tedious sections of atrocious singing in this film, it is a film that is worth keeping to watch again.