This Sporting Life

This Sporting Life (Criterion #417).
1963 Janus Films and The Rank Organisation
Starring: Richard Harris, Rachel Roberts, Alan Badel, William Hartnell, Colin Blakely, Vanda Godsell
Produced by Karel Reisz
Director: Lindsay Anderson
Buy This Sporting Life from Amazon.

Lindsay Anderson's feature length debut is an outstanding example of the kitchen sink realism (the "British New Wave") that British cinema was producing between the late 1950s and early '60s. Richard Harris made his film debut here, and he won the Best Actor Award at the 1963 Cannes Film festival for his portrayal as the angry Yorkshire miner Frank Machin, who is recruited into a local rugby club after the team's manager witnesses a drunken fight between Machin and several of his players. Frank takes time to mature into a decent player, but he is signed to the premier team when the owner, Gerald Weaver (Badel) is impressed by Machin's aggressive play. In due time, Frank Machin has wealth and fame, but he finds that it's not enough to win the affections of his landlady, Mrs. Margaret Hammond (Roberts).

Margaret is the struggling mother of two young children, and her husband is recently deceased after an accident at Weaver's engineering firm which was ruled a suicide. At first, she rejects Frank's advances, but does begin a relationship with him that seems doomed from the start. Machin uses Margaret for sex, and she is still grief-stricken enough that she cannot return affection. Margaret, meanwhile, is upset at Frank's lack of social graces during a dinner date at a fancy restaurant. The affair ends, but a reconciliation is not in the cards. Margaret dies following a brain hemorrhage, and Frank finally realizes that his rugby career is probably no better than working all of his life operating machinery in a mine: both choices ultimately feels like an inescapable prison.

This Sporting Life also features William Hartnell as "Dad" Johnson, a rugby scout who is devoted to Frank to an uncomfortable degree even after Machin abandons him after his first taste of success. Hartnell's appearance here gained the attention of the first Doctor Who producer, Verity Lambert, and he would become the first Doctor that same year.

Get this DVD! Highly, highly recommended film.

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. 1961 Bryanston Films, owned and distributed to DVD by MGM.
Starring: Albert Finney, Shirley Anne Field, Rachel Roberts, Hylda Baker, Norman Rossington
Producer: Tony Richardson
Director: Karel Reisz
Available at Amazon.

In England during the late 1950s and early 1960s, there was a cultural movement called kitchen sink realism, which usually depicted domestic situations of the working class British living in apartments or townhouses while spending their off-hours in pubs discussing social or political issues. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, adapted from Alan Sillitoe's novel of the same name, is considered to be the first "kitchen sink drama" film of the 1960s.

Arthur Seaton (Finney) is a young machinist working in a Nottingham factory, and he's having an affair with Brenda (Roberts), the wife of an older co-worker. He's also in a relationship with Doreen (Field), a woman closer to his age. Brenda gets pregnant during the course of the movie, and Arthur asks his aunt (Baker) for advice on aborting the child.

We see Arthur leading his reckless lifestyle simply to compensate for his boring job, and he does not want to become like his father (Frank Pettitt), whose entire existance seems to revolve around sitting in front of the television all day, every day. He is confident in his own manhood, viewing himself as superior to everyone else.

After Brenda's news, she discovers that Arthur is also seeing Doreen, which increases tensions between everyone. Doreen is an old fashioned girl, insisting on values like marriage and home ownership before she considers going to bed with Arthur, which still manages to captivate the young man. Brenda's husband discovers the affair, and has two soldiers (one is his brother) physically deal with Arthur in the streets. After recovering, Arthur returns to work a changed man, contemplating settling down and spending the rest of his life with Doreen.

Recommended movie.

The Gambler

The Gambler. 1974 Paramount Pictures
Starring: James Caan, Paul Sorvino, Lauren Hutton
Also starring: Jacqueline Brookes, Burt Young, Vic Tayback, Steven Keats, M. Emmet Walsh, James Woods
Director: Karel Reisz
The Gambler at Amazon (discontinued).

This was a blind buy at Wal-Mart when they were having a sale of discontinued Paramount DVDs some time ago. This movie also should not be confused with anything that Kenny Rogers has appeared in. All right?

Axel Freed (Caan) is a New York City English professor with a gambling addiction that is spiralling out of control, to the point that after one class, he asks his students if anyone could loan him "at least ten grand" to help him out. Regardless of doing that, he is still a decent teacher, but sadly, a terrible gambler who figures that he can "will himself to win". His debt to his bookie Hips (Sorvino) is now threatening to undermine his career and his relationship with Billie (Hutton).

Now $45,000 in the hole, Freed finds himself having to extort cash out of his own mother (Brookes) to pay his debt. He still seems unable to realize that he has a serious problem, despite the warning signs, and later on, the threats of violence if he doesn't pay up.

Recommended.