Strike Two Count

Film: The Angry Silence
Format: Internet video on laptop.

I’m not shy about my politics in general, but I tend to keep them off this blog as not being really a part of what I write about. But movies, like a great deal of art, are often political. It’s impossible to write about some of them without dipping into the political spectrum. The Angry Silence is such a film. There are plenty of films that deal with issues of labor unions and working people in conflict with their bosses. Most, like Norma Rae, North Country, or even Silkwood and Erin Brockovich are clear in siding with the people over the business. The Angry Silence is not nearly this clear, which makes it both frustrating and interesting, and for the same reason.

This is the story of a particular factory and a particular strike that doesn’t go the way that everyone wants. Tom Curtis (Richard Attenborough) works in a factory and has two children with his wife Anna (Pier Angeli) and as the film starts, we learn that they have a third one on the way. Because of this, when an unofficial strike is called at the factory, Tom decides not to participate, which is his right. The goal of the strike, which has been arranged by an outside agitator named Travers (Alfred Burke) and more or less enforced by the shop steward, Bert Connolly (Bernard Lee). The goal of the strike is to demand that the factory become a closed shop, which would give the union more power.

...Leading the Blind

Film: A Patch of Blue
Format: Streaming video from TCM Watch on laptop.

A Patch of Blue is a film that is very much a product of its time. That’s true of all movies, of course, but in this case, there’d be no reason to ever remake the story. A Patch of Blue is the story of an abused and socially oppressed blind girl who is befriended by a kind office worker. That doesn’t sound like much, but in this case, the blind girl is white, the office worker is black, and this is 1965.

Selina D’Arcey (Elizabeth Hartman in her debut role) is blind and lives almost the entirety of her life within the confines of her tiny apartment. She shares this apartment with mother Rose-Ann (Shelley Winters, who won the Supporting Actress Oscar for the role) and her grandfather Ole Pa (Wallace Ford). Rose-Ann makes something like a living as a prostitute, while her hobby seems to be making life as terrible for Selina as she can. Ole Pa isn’t much better; he is similarly abusive of Selina although not to the same extent, but his alcoholism makes him an ineffectual guardian at best. Selina spends her days stuck in the apartment doing chores and stringing sets of beads for Mr. Faber (John Qualen) as a way to supplement the family income.

Paging Dr. Freud

Film: The Mark
Format: Turner Classic Movies on rockin’ flatscreen.

Directors, at least the ones who are interested in more than money, often want to take on difficult subjects. The Mark is certainly that sort of film. I knew very little about this going in except that it was about a criminal looking to make a new start in life and encountering a series of difficulties. What I didn’t know is that this is not merely a film about a criminal. This is a film about a sexual predator that has evidently reformed and is weighed down by the enormity of his past crimes.

We’re introduced to Jim Fuller (an Oscar nominated Stuart Whitman), our ex-con, as he begins his first day on a new job. His boss Andrew Clive (Donald Wolfit) is aware of Jim’s past but has decided to give him a chance, thanks to the assurance of Jim’s therapist, Dr. Edmund McNally (Rod Steiger). Jim frequently goes to talk to Dr. McNally as a part of his continued therapy and treatment. McNally is convinced that Jim has his troubling past behind him and that he deserves this new lease on life.