We seem to be seeing a lot of Emlyn Williams recently. Here, he's a total badun out only for himself and money. A.J. Cronin's story is about a mining town (again). Miner Edward Rigby knows there is a plan of the mines showing where the danger from underground water lies, but the owner Allan Jeayes denies any knowledge of it. It's this that leads to the film's climactic disaster. In the meantime Michael Redgrave falls in with Williams' cast off, Margaret Lockwood, who talks him into not finishing his Uni degree and becoming a lowly teacher, thus ruining his life.
It is in fact rather a downbeat film which leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.
Reed's direction is occasionally clunky - in fact I would have dated it earlier than 1940. It was screenwritten by J.B. Williams and A. Coppel.
Nancy Price makes an impression as the tough-as-nails mother. (We might know her from Mandy, and rather more recently, IKWIG! One of her earliest appearances in 1921 is in the fabulously titled Belphegor the Mountebank!)
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