{"id":3037,"date":"2007-04-25T10:55:57","date_gmt":"2007-04-25T17:55:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3037"},"modified":"2021-01-31T22:28:50","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T05:28:50","slug":"stars-look-down-the-1940","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3037","title":{"rendered":"Stars Look Down, The (1940)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;These men and women are the backbone of nations, the stuff of human destiny &#8212; simple, working people, such as there are the world over, in all countries, and in all times.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Stars-Look-Down-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Stars-Look-Down-Poster-193x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"193\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-23048\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Stars-Look-Down-Poster-193x300.jpg 193w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Stars-Look-Down-Poster-82x128.jpg 82w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Stars-Look-Down-Poster.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 193px) 100vw, 193px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nAn idealistic young man (Michael Redgrave) from a Welsh mining town hopes to return with a university degree and improve conditions for the miners. His plans are disrupted, however, when he marries a socially ambitious woman (Margaret Lockwood) in love with his money-grubbing friend (Emlyn Williams).\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Carol Reed Films<\/li>\n<li>Henpecked Husbands<\/li>\n<li>Love Triangle<\/li>\n<li>Michael Redgrave Films<\/li>\n<li>Mining Town<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nAs Peary notes, this &#8220;fine, interesting, depressing&#8221; adaptation of A.J. Cronin&#8217;s novel is &#8220;generally regarded as the first British film with social relevance.&#8221; Director Carol Reed does an excellent job showing &#8220;the contempt rich owners have for their underpaid employees and the distrust labor has for its union leaders&#8221;; unfortunately, however, this powerful narrative thread is done in by Redgrave&#8217;s romance with the insufferable Lockwood, who has zero redeeming qualities. It&#8217;s literally painful to watch the likable yet horribly naive Redgrave cuckolded by his wife &#8212; especially since his distraction from his noble goals has grave consequences for the entire mining town. Although I admire <em>The Stars Look Down<\/em>, it&#8217;s not a film I&#8217;m eager to revisit. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A gritty, realistic look at life in a Welsh mining town<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/CoalMining.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/CoalMining.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"760\" height=\"576\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3036\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>One of the first British films to deal seriously with a socially meaningful issue<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Miners.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Miners.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"760\" height=\"576\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3035\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, simply for its historical importance.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Historically Relevant<\/li>\n<li>Important Director<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/imdb.com\/title\/tt0031976\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1941\/07\/24\/archives\/the-stars-look-down-moving-drama-of-english-mining-disaster-opens.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/homepage.eircom.net\/~obrienh\/sld.htm\">Harvey O&#8217;Brien&#8217;s Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;These men and women are the backbone of nations, the stuff of human destiny &#8212; simple, working people, such as there are the world over, in all countries, and in all times.&#8221; Synopsis: An idealistic young man (Michael Redgrave) from a Welsh mining town hopes to return with a university degree and improve conditions for the miners. His plans are disrupted, however, when he marries a socially ambitious woman (Margaret Lockwood) in love with his money-grubbing friend (Emlyn Williams). Genres,&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3037\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3037"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67566,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3037\/revisions\/67566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}