Movie Cosmos - The Stars Look Down

Description:

Davey Fenwick leaves his mining village on a university scholarship intent on returning to better support the miners against the owners. But he falls in love with Jenny who gets him to marry her and return home as local schoolteacher before finishing his degree.

Top Cast >

Michael Redgrave

As Davey Fenwick

Margaret Lockwood

As Jenny Sunley

Emlyn Williams

As Joe Gowlan

Nancy Price

As Martha Fenwick - Davey's mother

Allan Jeayes

As Richard Barras - the mine owner

Edward Rigby

As Robert Fenwick - Davey's father

Desmond Tester

As Hughie Fenwick - Davey's brother

David Markham

As Arthur Barras - Barras' son

Cecil Parker

As Stanley Millington

Linden Travers

As Mrs. Laura Millington

Milton Rosmer

As Harry Nugent, MP

George Carney

As Slogger Gowlan

Ivor Barnard

As Wept

Olga Lindo

As Mrs. Sunley

Aubrey Mallalieu

As Hudspeth

Kynaston Reeves

As Strother

Clive Baxter

As Pat Reedy

James Harcourt

As Will

Frederick Burtwell

As Union Official

Dorothy Hamilton

As Mrs. Reedy

Frank Atkinson

As Miner

David Horne

As Mr. Wilkins

Edmund Willard

As Mr. Ramage

Ben Williams

As Harry Brace

Scott Harrold

As Headmaster Strother

Lionel Barrymore

As Narrator (U.S. release only) (voice)

Howard Douglas

As Miner at Rescue

Cameron Hall

As Cinema Commissionaire

Bryan Herbert

As Man Outside Football Ground

Vincent Holman

As 1st Arresting Policeman

Roddy Hughes

As Union Committee Member

Mike Johnson

As Looting Miner

Vi Kaley

As Old Woman at Looting

Laurence Kitchin

As Dickie - Butcher's Boy

Charles Rolfe

As 2nd Arresting Policeman

D.J. Williams

As Union Committee Chairman

Top Crew >

Carol Reed

Director

Hans May

Original Music Composer

Mutz Greenbaum

Director of Photography

A.J. Cronin

Novel, Adaptation

Isadore Goldsmith

Producer

J.B. Williams

Screenplay

Reviews:

CinemaSerf (7/10)

Michael Redgrave is the local boy done good, when he wins a scholarship to go to university to train to be a teacher. Unfortunately, he has fallen in love with the rather fickle "Jenny" (Margaret Lockwood) who has a bit of a venal streak. Curtailing his studies, he returns to live with her in his boyhood town intent on improving the lot of his community - but he is soon disillusioned when he sees his wife still keen on her flashy old flame "Joe" (Emlyn Williams) and that his elderly father looks set to have to work the mines for years to come... He accidentally discovers that the mine is unsafe, and determines to bring this to the attention of the council to avert disaster, but will they listen? Carol Reed allows this story plenty of room to breathe. Though not complex, we can see the characterisations develop as the story seems to head, unstoppably, towards disaster in quite a compelling fashion. Redgrave, Williams and Allan Jeayes as mine owner "Barras" work well to create a solid, if a bit dryly told, story of greed and exploitation with some superbly claustrophobic mining photography to add authenticity.

2022-06-23