THE MARGARET LOCKWOOD CENTENNIAL BLOGATHON: THE STARS LOOK DOWN (1940)

Today's post is a proud contribution to Terence Towles Canote's Margaret Lockwood Centennial Blogathon. Click unto A Shroud of Thoughts for the tributes to this most worthy star.

A.J. Cronin (TVs Dr. Finlay's Casebook) was a Scottish physician and novelist whose popular novels did more than entertain. The author enlightened readers to important social issues in his works. Cronin took us on spiritual journeys as well. If you haven't read his novels, you may be familiar with many films adapted from his works including The Citadel, Vigil in the Night, The Green Years and The Keys of the Kingdom.

The Stars Look Down was published in 1935 and the 1940 film version was adapted by J.B. Williams (We Dive at Dawn) and directed by Carol Reed (Odd Man Out, The Third Man). The National Board of Review placed the movie on its top ten list of 1941.

Michael Redgrave as Davey Fenwick

Davey Fenwick played by Michel Redgrave (The Lady Vanishes, The Importance of Being Earnest) is a born idealist who learns the harsh lessons of life in his Welsh mining town. His miner father, Robert played by Edward Rigby (The Happiest Days of Your Life) is a quiet leader who works for the safety of his fellows. He is an inspiration to Davy who wants to use his university scholarship to go into politics and fight for public ownership of the mines, denying individual owners the right to dominate the workers.

Emlyn Williams as Joe Gowlan

Joe Gowlan played by Emlyn Williams (Night Must Fall, The Corn is Green) is a born capitalist. Like Davey, he leaves for the bright city lights of Tynecastle, but his only goal is money, and plenty of it.  A smart lad, he is soon operating a bookie operation but sets his sights on bigger and more legit enterprises.

Margaret Lockwood as Jenny Sunley

Jenny Sunley played by Margaret Lockwood (The Lady Vanishes, The Wicked Lady) is a young woman who knows what she wants and wants it now. Like Joe and his aspirations, Jenny may not want to be a lady, but she wants to be treated like one. She has accurately pegged Joe as someone who will get to the top and she assumes their long-standing relationship is going to lead to marriage. Joe is a boarder at Jenny's place and her mother is most definitely in agreement with this assessment.

What Jenny doesn't realize is that born capitalists like Joe know how to deal with grasping young women, no matter how attractive. Joe's ladder to success includes cozying up to the bored wife of a rich industrialist. The couple is played by Linden Travers and Cecil Parker, who can be seen paired in The Lady Vanishes and Quartet as well. Joe cannot very well put his plan into action with Jenny hanging around his neck and opportunely introduces her to Davey.

Michael Redgrave, Margaret Lockwood

Born idealists like Davey are apt to look at attractive young women like Jenny and fall hopelessly in love, and that is just what happens. Jenny can't see how Joe is manipulating the situation before it is too late. Heartbroken and angry at being spurned, Jenny seduces Davey into leaving university a year short of his degree and the promise of a prominent parliamentarian to assist in his career to marry her and return to his hometown to work as a schoolmaster. If Jenny had a clue in her pretty little head she would have seen where Davey's education and success in government might have taken her. Destructively, "patience" is not part of Jenny's vocabulary. Her needs are all immediate and Davey and his family are the ones to suffer.

Away from the domestic aspects of our story, we return to the downtrodden miners whose deplorable living conditions are second only to their dangerous working conditions. The unsafe section of mine that Davey's dad has been fighting against is opened thanks to the greedy mine owner, who is in possession of plans indicating the truth of denied claims. Our friend Joe Gowan has brokered the deal that will result in the prophesied disaster. While we cannot lay the blame for the mine cave in on the selfish Jenny, her actions to lead to Joe being able to discredit Davey as an advocate for the miners to the Board of Directors.

The depiction of the fate of the miners is almost heart wrenchingly unbearable as the audience suffers through the torment of living entombment with characters we have come to know including Davey's father, football mad brother, who had been given a tryout with the Tynecastle team, played by Desmond Tester (Sabotage, Drums) and a young student Davey had mentored while teaching.

Margaret Lockwood's Jenny is an unconscious villain in this piece, unlike some of her later characters such as Hester in The Lady in Grey and Barbara Worth in The Wicked Lady, whose treachery is more well-defined and focused. Heroine or villain, Margaret Lockwood's talent for bringing the truth of her character to the screen is always admirable and always watchable.