User reviews

This brilliant, deeply contentious film has largely been ignored over the years. It came out just as 'the kitchen sink' was kicking in and, although dealing with the working class, was very much an establishment film. It's right-wing and anti-Union and it quickly became very unfashionable to think highly of it. But dramatically, it's first-rate; it has the feel of those good BBC 'Plays for today' that came out in the sixties even if does leave a very bad taste in the mouth.

It's about a man sent to coventry for not supporting an unofficial strike. He's played by Richard Attenborough and it's a great piece of acting. As written, the character isn't developed in dramatic terms but Attenborough is wonderfully naturalistic. It's an intuitive performance; he gets inside the character's skin and thought processes. He's very moving.

There is very fine work, too, from Pier Angeli as his Italian wife. (Angeli was probably brought in to sell the film in America, and there's an easy-going, unforced quality to her acting that is very 'un-British'). And Bernard Lee is excellent as the dictatorial shop steward. The film also has an unfortunate Mephistopolean character in the form of an infiltrator. He's evil and cowardly and used in such a blatantly metaphorical way you can't be sure exactly what his purpose is. And being a political, Union bashing film you may feel uneasy watching it. But there are very fine. sustained dramatic sequences, too and it is utterly unsentimental.

to anyone who lived through these times and these types of factory settings this film resonates.

The Burke character of the communist agitator invokes criticism of left bashing but anyone who had experience of the British motor/engineering industry in these times knows that it is much closer to the truth than many people want to believe.

However to those that think the film has right wing bias you only have to look at how the useless fat cat directors are portrayed (having no knowledge of the business they are taking large salaries from), hardly an advertisement of capitalism. Plus even the "sympathetic" management end up not supporting the worker who supported them, as bad as the agitator in their own way.

Good performances all round, outstanding from Richard Attenborough, Pier Angeli, an unusually good turn by Michael Craig and dependable Bernard Lee as the dim union man manipulated easily by the agitator.

A style of film-making gone now but interesting social commentary of the times. Recommended for social historians and affectionados of good acting.

This film doesn't seem to be very well known but it has a lot to offer.

I've seen 50s/60s comedies based around factories but I can't remember many serious dramas like this. The plot holds few surprises but that leaves plenty of room for us to judge the acting, and I'd say it's consistently good. Richard Attenborough and Pier Angeli are a great combination as the young married couple - it's a shame Pier made so few films in English.

A lot of scriptwriters could do worse than watch this film and learn its lessons about how to tell a story in 90 minutes. And this is a good film for classroom use - leads nicely into a discussion of peer pressure and bullying.

"The Angry Silence" can be read in two ways: one, it is a pretty accurate depiction of the way union relations were run in the late 1950s and the shadow of the far left; or, it is a propaganda piece for the far right and nothing like the truth. There are strong arguments for both camps to be correct.

What struck me about the film was the central performance from Richard Attenborough as the lone worker standing up against bullying and blackmail from his trade union colleagues. One scene in particular which takes place in the canteen is a masterclass in screen acting of its type, and there are also good scenes between Attenborough and his screen wife, played by Pier Angeli, and his work colleague and lodger, played by Michael Craig.

Bryan Forbes always seemed to be veering off in different directions with the various movies on his CV, and this is an odd one. Whatever your politics, it is a good film and provokes a reaction. Whether the reaction is one which matches the reality has to remain open to question.

Guy Green's (1960) film of Bryan Forbes' screenplay is based on a treatment by Michael Craig and, brother, Richard Gregson. Set in London in the late 1950's it was the first release of the joint venture production company Beaver Films set up by Bryan Forbes and Richard Attenborough.

As the film opens, we join Tom Curtis (Richard Attenborough) at work in a small engineering factory beset with labour problems. Single-minded and fiercely independent, Curtis is slow to grasp the implications of the fomenting unrest among his workmates as they band together to challenge the management head-on in a dispute that ultimately leaves Curtis out in the cold.

We follow Curtis home at night where his workmate Joe Wallis (Michael Craig - also writer) lodges with Curtis, his wife Anna (Pier Angeli) and their young family.

But as industrial relations deteriorate at work we see Curtis becoming increasingly isolated and intimidated by his determined colleagues.

With solid performances from Bernard Lee (Bert Connolly), Geoffrey Keen (Davis) and Alfred Burke (Travers) as the sinister agitator, the audience sees Curtis left high and dry as even the management feel compelled to abandon him.

Increasingly out of his depth, we are drawn into Curtis' worsening situation as his family are also intimidated in an effort to break his indomitable will.

This film captures something of the early struggle for recognition by employees in small firms like this before employment protection became enshrined in the law of the land. It gives us a feel for the situation of the casualties along the way and the forces at play.

Though Richard Attenborough takes top billing in this drama, I think Bernard Lee actually delivers the more potent performance as the shop steward "Bert". He calls for an unofficial strike of the workers at an engineering plant. Out they go, well most of them do - and it is soon clear to the audience that there is an agitator amongst the workforce intent on using this dispute for a greater purpose. We also encounter a few local hoodlums who have few scruples when it comes to persecuting - violently at times - those few workers who cross their picket line and continue to work. "Curtis" (Attenborough) is one such man. He already has a young son, and his wife is expecting his second child - so money is too tight for him not to get a wage. Pretty soon he is the victim of a vendetta from his erstwhile colleagues as they ostracise him completely. Director Bryan Forbes and co-star Michael Craig ("Wallace") had a hand in the writing and that is powerful. It generates a genuine sense of menace as those daring to break the strike find their property and their physical safety compromised whilst their erstwhile friends struggle with their consciences. Brian Bedford also stands out as the thuggish "Barrett" and there is also a potent, if sparing, contribution from Pier Angeli as the young man's wife "Anna". Ordinarily, one might expect this story to be about the abuse of power by an employer; here, though, the abuses are clearly coming from those with a broader agenda quite capable of mobilising a workforce of political sheep. The ending is rather rushed - almost incomplete, unfortunately but the ensemble and the toic work really well here to create a thought-provoking piece of cinema that packs a lot into ninety minutes.

I saw this film in my first year in law school in New York in 1991. A prior comment calls the film "right wing." Unfortunately, given the subsequent events in Britain in the 1970s and contemporary events in Detroit right now, it is prescient. Lord Attenborough's character faces a labor high noon many encounter in a union shop. One older worker in the film wants only to make a product that he is proud of. A pride that forces in the union movement obstruct. Anyone compelled to join a union by organizers who hire on only to unionize, will appreciate this film. I know. I've been there -- twice. White collar and blue collar jobs. That the film was made at all is amazing. But this often grim picture does have a comedic sibling -- the equally brilliant I'M ALL RIGHT JACK with Ian Carmichael and Peter Sellars. See both and you will understand what happened to Britain as well as too much of industrial America. If corporate greed has a partner, it is union executives who throw their members under a bus to save their jobs. THE ANGRY SILENCE should be required viewing for anyone who believes that political films -- not politicized films -- have a place in Hollywood. Heartbreaking story, economic direction, and brilliant acting. In dramatic black and white. The screenplay won a BAFTA Award for Bryan Forbes.

What goes around comes around, I guess. I'm old enough to not only vividly remember the industrial unrest in the U. K. of the early 70's if not quite the start of the 60's when this film was made, but also to see it come right back around again today in major strikes by teachers, rail workers and more. I guess that confers some kind of coincidental topicality to this drama concerning one man's stand against his union and the subsequent fall-out from his actions.

Cards on the table, my politics are left-leaning and instinctively favour the workers over the bosses although I like to think I can see both sides of an argument. There's little doubt though that this particular movie sees the unions as a distinctly bad thing, painting them as self-serving, anti-democratic bodies forever looking to lock horns with the management and cause unrest and dissent in the marketplace. More than that, at least in this movie, they're also shown to be open to infiltration by clandestine insurgents working to their own anti-capitalist agenda.

To be fair, the powers-that-be who run the factory here don't come out smelling of roses either as they hardly sympathise with Richard Attenborough's almost accidental defiance of the union's call to strike. With a young wife, two kids and another on the way, Attenborough's Tom Curtis character decides he can't afford to not work which eventually sees him emerge as the sole worker prepared to cross the picket line and go in to work. Naturally there's a price to pay as he's effectively "sent to Coventry" by all his workmates for his actions and even sees his mate and lodger Michael Craig's Joe join in with the silent majority against him.

It all goes too far however when Curtis's kid gets tarred and feathered for standing up for his dad and as he himself approaches something of a breakdown, some young thugs on the workforce take matters into their own hands to dish out a physical lesson which goes way too far.

I applaud the writers and director for at least having the guts to address a contemporary social issue, but consider it was done too broadly and pejoratively. Nowadays we'd surely find the bullying of Curtis and his quick-to-evaporate small band of fellow dissenters to be akin to both mental and physical harassment, plus I'm not too sure that the turning of Craig's worm, which may just have been only because he wants to boost his romantic prospects with the attractive new company secretary, seemed credible in the cold light of day.

There are good performances by Attenborough and Pier Angelo as the bemused young couple at the centre of the storm and the movie is paced well by director Guy Green with some neat eye-catching touches which show talent.

Ultimately though, for me, the fault in the movie was in the writing and particularly the stereotypical representation of the opposing political points of view central to events here, so that in the end, I just wasn't struck sufficiently by this particular strike.

A film which shows how Britains factories worked in the 50s,a place which employs thousands of people,usually on low wages.The workers only protection is their union which of course is only fair.Then the union is taken over by a few dedicated socialists who then are manipulated by the far lft. .Everything that happens in this film is true to life,and shows that adults soon behave like spoilt children when they don't get there own way.The rights of the individual are soon gone,violence and bullying follows,the film ask questions and leaves you asking your self questions at the end.Well worth a watch 8/10

Filmed in Ipswich, this screenplay, challenging in its time, gives a clear portrayal of British Industrial relations during the time 'We never had it so good.' Alfred Burke's agent provocateur with his sinister telephone calls does just enough to suggest that the cold war was blowing through British engineering. Attenborough's innocent at the power lathe is nicely offset by the underrated Michael Craig as his friend and lodger forced to go along with the Union's decision to send the strikebreaker to Coventry. Good location shooting and the knowledge that things were not so very different in reality makes this a handy movie from several perspectives. Viewed with 'I'm Alright Jack' you can gain a fair impression of Britain in the days of Black and White Television

Although I saw this film many years ago when I was a university in the 1970's, it would not appear to be very well known. A couple of years ago it came out on DVD in the UK and I gobbled it up the day I found it ! In fact, the film is a masterpiece of acting. It depicts an age in Britain's Industrial Relations which was ( fortunately for us all ) swept away when Margaret Thatcher's government came to power in 1979. Prior to this, the British Economy was in a mess and all people could think about doing was going on strike. The film, made in 1959 presumably depicts somewhere around the beginning of this period. Nowadays, people don't speak of "closed shop" agreements, presumably because it has been made illegal, but at the time, if you weren't a member of a union, you had difficulties to be employed. T The film is extremely violent in its ideas and although the physical violence is limited, the underlying and implied violence in thought and ideas is rather frightening. Scenes of Attenborough trying to enter the factory to work and being intimidated by other striking workers really are very shocking and difficult to watch. Attenborough's wife on the screen the Beautiful and much regretted Pier Angela brings a soft and feminine touch to this world of bigoted louts and layabouts. Watching someone being sent to Coventry ( ie being ignored ) is no easy matter and I felt quite sick at the way Attenborough was treated by his colleagues, just because he refused to strike. Nowadays that sort of thing wouldn't happen but at the time the mentality was different ( which just goes to prove that the old mentalities are not always the better ones ) I was curious to know about the person who arrives on a train at the beginning and leaves just as furtively at the end. I don't know the actor's name but he certainly had a face corresponding to the part. I assume he was an agent from a competitor company sent by them to stir up trouble amines the Martindale Employées so that another company would get the orders. We don't have confirmation of this during the film by that is my own idea. I originally thought he was a commy infiltrator but then changed my mind after a few viewings of the film.

I personally found the film very nourishing and very intense, true it depicts a long lost era in British Labour Relations but the sheer intensity of the acting and the violence means that one cannot get it out of one's mind. What a shame we no longer have British Cinema today producing films of this intensity on problems in current-day Britain!

I loved this movie. Pier Angeli keeps you entertained and her performance is riveting. Richard Attenborough is brilliant in this motion picture as well. I really enjoyed the message in this film. The corruption that goes on in unions is evident in this movie. I believe that this type of wrong-doing is still going on today in unions across the globe.

I read in a biography of Pier Angeli that she rehearsed the confrontational scene between herself and her on-screen husband's former friend the night before the directors filmed that scene. She apparently scared the hell out of the actor in that scene that night because she gave her all and she really got aggravated. She had just filed for divorce prior to taking on this role so I guess you can say that she had a lot of bent up frustration and wanted to release it. Love her!

How did I never see this? Another Talking Pictures TV gem. Preceded the year before by the excellent and similarly themed comedic classic, I'm Alright Jack, this hard-hitting drama is an ideal counterpart. A strong cast, headed by Richard Attenborough, with his wife very well played by Pier Angeli. I particularly liked Alfred Burke's scheming, Marxist, union activist, book-ending the film with his arrival and departure - on public transport, of course. It also features Bond regulars, Bernard Lee and Geoffrey Keen, an early role for Oliver Reed, and playing himself, Alan Whicker. It's not quite Kitchen Sink, which had more of a fashionable, if usually grim theme, but is in a similar vein.

Ignore comments about it being 'far-right', they are ridiculous. The film is a well-balanced, politically centrist take that in no way demonises unions or strikes, although occasionally feels a bit heavy handed with some of its messages. Clearly, pre-1970s, there was still a battle going on for the hearts and minds of the working class. A prophetic warning of the far-left politics that was to come over the next decade. By the time 1971's very silly and misjudged, but better known, Carry On At Your Convenience arrived, the battle was lost. Beyond politics, this is essentially a universal story about bullying, group think and the individual, and reminded me a lot of my school days. It deserves to be better recognised and watched.

I remember the reviews of this film in 1960 but did not manage to see it. Now (2007) I have seen most of it for the first time on afternoon TV. It struck me at first as an anti union film, but so much water has flowed under the bridge that it might be taken as a film about the herd instinct; about how unthinking people are so easily led whether by politicians of all persuasions or union reps with agenda of their own. I deplore the near destruction of the unions by Thatcher, but one can never return to voting by a show of hands any more than we can return to the the industrial Britain of the post war era. Unions need to be rebuilt but in another form.

The young couple are too saintly by half but there is an attempt to provide a certain amount of balance. Curtis actually says he can see "both sides".

When this film was made Trade Unions had no legal liability.Often as realistically shown in this film workers went on wildcat strikes with no sanction from the union.Striking was called the British disease.Now I am no fan of Thatcher who was our local MP.However she did bring in balanced union laws.So whilst strikes still happen they are a lot rarer and there has to be a written ballot with a simple majority in favour.This film accurately depicts the poor state of worker/employer relations till the eighties.I still remember the three day week.

Gem of a film,not anti union but certainly anti turning a blind eye to someone being ostracised or bullied,following the crowd blindly and not standing for what you truly believe.

Acting is the best you will see in any film,no one puts a foot wrong all round peformance wise,though Richard Attenborough is the stand out for me.

A masterpiece ,still relevant today,in a way i think it always will be.