The Stars Look Down

A mining town in the north of England. The miners refuse to work because they know they are cutting towards an old flooded gallery; the company does not listen. Meanwhile David, a miner's son, is trying to study his way out of town and moving into politics. The film is not interested in the accident. It is interested in a warning going unheard: the disaster is not used as a surprise but shown step by step as an outcome everyone knew from the start. The guilt lies with nobody in particular, only with a calculation of profit. The form is hard for prewar British cinema: exteriors shot in real coal country, heavy light and a refusal of the happy ending. The source is A. J. Cronin's novel. Cronin had practised medicine in mining districts, and his books come out of that. Carol Reed directed. A few years later he would be known for The Third Man. Michael Redgrave plays David, with Margaret Lockwood and Emlyn Williams in the other parts. Who it is for: viewers who like socially minded British classics and mining stories. Who it is not for: anyone looking for hope. Both the strike and the personal thread end somewhere bleak.