Brighton Rock opens with a disclaimer that the town it depicts is of the past; “another Brighton of dark alleyways and festering slums…crime and violence and gang warfare…now happily no more;. And yet the film, based on Graham Green’s 1938 pre-war novel, stands up so well because of its prescience about the post-war period.

Greene insisted that his novel drew on a background that was already passing into social history with the Brighton race gangs being all but gone, yet the film is powerfully prophetic. Brighton Rock in part is intended as an attack on the rise of popular culture, which Greene clearly detested, but time has transformed it into a paean to the melancholy of English youth that filled the post-war period. At moments the film seems to almost reach English Noir excellence, although it isn’t the best example of that genre, with a weird ‘soft ending’.

In late 1930s Brighton, vicious gangs rule the roost, especially one led by soulless teenager Pinkie Brown. After killing a man at the fairground, he attempts to establish a watertight alibi by marrying Rose, a potential witness, to prevent her from giving evidence against him. Pinkie Brown has no past, childhood or explanation, although we know he is 17 and is referred to still as a ‘boy’ in the book. His eyes were touched with the annihilating eternity from which he had come and to which he went wrote Greene, as if Pinkie had come from the depths of Hell itself. He personifies chronic violence and sexual freeze, although doesn’t seem to suffer it.

The public were horrified by Pinkie upon publication of the book but by the time 23-year- old Richard Attenborough came to play him for the film, the razor-happy English gangster – the spiv – had become better known. Wide-eyed Rose, played by Carol Marsh, is just 16 and all of the things Pinkie isn’t. The film is a study in good and evil, innocence and infantile depravity that sadly becomes an unconvincing mystery story, with the ‘perfect crime’ being

Catholic Pinkie persuading Rose damn herself for all eternity by taking her own life. It is a strange film really, and reveals Greene’s tight-lipped desire for unspeakable things.

The void in Pinkie’s background is at odds with the overall air of realism. In the mood of the Whitsun bank holiday and the day at the races it is almost possible to smell Brighton- the real fishiness and limp sun of the British seaside. Getting the town and its drab fun so right only underlines how at odds Pinkie is with the rest of the film. Here is not an authentic juvenile delinquent, not an ‘Angry Young Man’, but a warped religious spirit- a demon possessed. Thus he is beyond the explanations of social realism…

And I’m not quite sure that it works.

Social Realism focuses on social issues and the hardships of everyday life for the poor or underclass. It is the most typically British of all film genres, although it will never bring in the tourists the way a Richard Curtis rom-com does. Post World War I it was widely felt that the key to national cinema was ‘realism and restraint’ yet this was to the tastes of the mainly southern middle-class audience rather than the class it depicts. As such realism carries distinctly patrician connotations of education and high seriousness.

Perhaps the Boulting Brothers- who alternated their credits for Director and Producer in the films they made together- use Pinkie to stand against this near demonisation of the working class. For he is, in truth, demon himself.

Sargent Johnny Drake disappears after being awarded the Medal of Honour for his courageous actions during World War Two. His best friend Rip Murdock sets off to investigate and, after learning Johnny has been accused of murder, swears to clear his name. How is the dead man’s wife involved and is Johnny and Rip’s relationship closer than they’re letting on?

When Rip Murdock meets Coral Chandler, in Noir thriller Dead Reckoning, he discovers another almost perfect femme fatale; her past is hazy, she sings in nightclubs and has a bad habit of making men fall in love with her… Oh yes, and they generally wind up dead. Delightful!

But this isn’t really a story about the men in Coral’s life or even Rip’s search for the truth about Johnny’s death…

Although it doesn’t make the poster, central to the film is the love between Johnny and Rip.

It’s not uncommon in Film Noir for there to be a… I want to say ‘explicit subtext’ but that feels like an oxymoron… there is a subtext. Rip, like a lot of men in these films (and, I suppose ‘those times’ if Mad Men is to be believed…) is casually sexist. And not just a little sexist.

Women are not only devious and annoying they’re also objects. They don’t earn or deserve love- they steal it. Johnny, on the other hand, fought bravely by Rip’s side and saved his life on numerous occasions- winning both his trust and his affections.

Coral may have started out as Johnny’s girl but she seems willing to follow any man who will protect her. We’re left with many questions about her- does she even really love Rip, as she says? After all, it’s hard to believe someone when they lie that often.

It’s interesting to note- when Rip is feeling particularly fond of Coral he has a particularly masculine nickname for her. Lizabeth Scott- fantastic name isn’t it? Originally her stage name was going to be ‘Elizabeth’ but she dropped the ‘e’ “just to be different”…Lizabeth Scott, the actress playing Coral, was later blacklisted for being gay.

For those of you who aren’t aware, ‘blacklisting’ is a term that comes from the Second Red Scare (anti-communist fears) in the 1950s of which Senator Joseph McCarthy was the figurehead. Thousands of Americans and people working in America were accused of being Communists or Communist sympathisers and subject to… institutional bullying. They were stalked by investigators, questioned by government committees and could be arrested at any time.

The threat posed by a person with left-wing beliefs was judged to be an issue of national security… beware of Guardian readers! Alleged homosexuality was also grounds for being targeted and arrested.

In Hollywood, those under suspicion were either fired or denied work- despite questionable evidence.  Over 300 actors, writers, directors and even producers were denied work, their names having been added to the ‘black list’. That’s a lot of wasted talent… although some did continue to work, behind the scenes, under assumed names.

The term ‘McCarthyism’ is now used to describe reckless and unsubstantiated accusations attempting to defame a political opponent.

Bogart is on top cynical form, as always. Oh, interesting fact! He was actually born into New York high society but didn’t get his big break in films until he started playing world-weary pessimists rather than aristocrats.

In the train scene, after they discover that Drake is to receive the Medal of Honor, Murdock quips that maybe the president will let Drake “sit on top of his piano”. This is a reference to a then-scandalous photo of Harry Truman playing piano with a leggy blonde on top that was taken at the National Press Club in 1945. The blonde was Lauren Bacall – who by 1947 was his wife!

Lovely Johnny Case (we’re being conditioned to like men called ‘Johnny’) has the most peculiar fashion of dealing with nerves- he flips! Unsurprising really as he’s played by the equally-lovely, Cary Grant- who ran away to join the circus aged 14. No, he really did! He was born in Bristol (England), was abandoned by his parents and went on to play gentleman bachelors in Hollywood romantic comedies. In fact, Ian Fleming modeled James Bond with a mind to Grant playing him in any future films…

Grant never played a villain. In this film he is a young man who falls head over heels in love with a girl he’s only just met. Of course, having asked her to marry him (after just ten days!) now he has to meet the family… and he’s in for a surprise.

Julia Seaton’s father is traditional, a banker and expects her future husband to follow him in the business. Her siblings are a little different however… oddball Katherine Hepburn is eccentric sister Linda- on a quest to find her place in the world- and poor brother Ned… has his own problems;

Did you note the beautiful scenery on display? Well, it makes poor Johnny awfully nervous as he really had no idea what he’s intending to marry into! Kind hearted Linda welcomes Johnny into the family and supports his dream to spend his early years on ‘holiday’, finding himself and discovering the world before he settles down to work. (No one took a Gap Year before university in those days!)

The eponymous ‘Holiday’ of Johnny’s dreams is the key plot point, dividing the characters in opinion.

Katharine Hepburn understudied the role of Linda Seaton in the original play on Broadway in the late 20s. She performed a scene from ‘Holiday’ for her first screen test and then became a star… who appeared in the film adaptation! Linda Seaton was loosely based on a former debutante who left high society to hunt wild animals in Africa! Katharine Hepburn is the perfect actress to portray her. She loved to defy convention; wearing men’s clothes because they were far more comfortable and practical. When the studio’s costume department hid her trousers in the early 1930s she walked around in her underwear instead! The third of four films pairing Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. They both were known for doing a lot of their own stunts Hepburn because she didn’t believe her double had correct deportment.

The film is a classic ‘screwball comedy’- that beautiful, wry humour teamed with farce that we now associate with French comedies. Johnny and Linda are delightfully whimsical. I suppose I like them so much because we share a similar world view- that life in inherently amusing.

Unfortunately Julia doesn’t have quite the same sensibility… So what should Johnny do? Follow his dreams or settle down for the girl he loves?