A well balanced film in which a mysterious agitator (Alfred Burke) encourages a somewhat militant factory union leader Bernard Lee to stage an unofficial strike; Dickie Attenborough is one who continues working, until he gets newspaper headlines, causing him to become most unpopular with most of the factory bosses and his fellow workers, who send him to Coventry. A group of factory thugs are there to intimidate - but they're not doing so at anyone's instigation, rather that they're loutish brutes (Brian Bedford, Brian Murray and a young Oliver Reed). Pier Angeli the wife, Michael Craig the initially passive friend / lodger.
Geoffrey Keene is the factory manager siding with Dickie; the Union itself is also trying to help the situation - it's individuals who are the problem, not institutions.
With Gerald Sim, Norman Bird, Penelope Horner. Loved the moment Alan Whicker interview the thugs about why they've voted a certain way and they're so thick they don't know.
Filmed in Ipswich and Shepperton by Arthur Ibbetson, music by Malcolm Arnold, edited by Anthony Harvey. An independent Beaver Films production.
Anna Maria Pierangeli was born in Sardinia and first appeared in Italian films, had some success here and US e.g. Somebody Up There Likes Me. Died of a barbiturates overdose in 1971 aged 39.
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