There was nothing on telly and BBC2 were showing it. It was snowing outside so I wrapped up warm and snuggled down to see if it was as bad as I feared - it was.
I have a great idea for a film, they must have said to each other. We'll take a classic film like Brighton Rock (1947) and mix it up a bit with Quadrophenia so that people will think we've done some original work. If anyone asks we'll tell them that we're re-making the story from the original novel, but of course we won't bother with that really. We'll make a packet without having to do any work.
We'll pull in some decent actors like Helen Mirren, John Hurt and Phil Davis, they can help us sell any film. We'll kill Phil off fairly early but he hasn't been given a decent part anyway. Helen Mirren can play the sexy older woman, played by Hermione Baddeley in the original. She can't help giving a decent performance, people would pay to see her read the phone book. John Hurt hovers in the background and doesn't really add anything to the film but we'll put his name high up on the posters.
It's a shame that we can't afford any decent young actors like the young Dickie Attenborough, but as long as he looks fairly pretty and can run and shout a bit, it doesn't matter who we get to play the "lead".
How can they claim they did anything original for this or went back to the original novel? There was nothing of significance that wasn't in the 1947 film. They even "borrowed" the cop-out ending with the record. Pinkie's house was definitely modelled on the 1940s rather than the 1960s.
Dire, dire, dire.
I have a great idea for a film, they must have said to each other. We'll take a classic film like Brighton Rock (1947) and mix it up a bit with Quadrophenia so that people will think we've done some original work. If anyone asks we'll tell them that we're re-making the story from the original novel, but of course we won't bother with that really. We'll make a packet without having to do any work.
We'll pull in some decent actors like Helen Mirren, John Hurt and Phil Davis, they can help us sell any film. We'll kill Phil off fairly early but he hasn't been given a decent part anyway. Helen Mirren can play the sexy older woman, played by Hermione Baddeley in the original. She can't help giving a decent performance, people would pay to see her read the phone book. John Hurt hovers in the background and doesn't really add anything to the film but we'll put his name high up on the posters.
It's a shame that we can't afford any decent young actors like the young Dickie Attenborough, but as long as he looks fairly pretty and can run and shout a bit, it doesn't matter who we get to play the "lead".
How can they claim they did anything original for this or went back to the original novel? There was nothing of significance that wasn't in the 1947 film. They even "borrowed" the cop-out ending with the record. Pinkie's house was definitely modelled on the 1940s rather than the 1960s.
Dire, dire, dire.