Two films that changed the law

Whilst Ken Loach has quite rightly become something of a national treasure, Basil Dearden (1911-1971) on the other hand is the forgotten man of British cinema.

Thanks in the main to Carol White’s searing performance in CATHY COME HOME, Ken Loach’s 1966 BBC Wednesday Play on the plight of homeless families, was transmuted promptly into SHELTER and later in 1977, THE HOMELESS PERSONS’ ACT.

In what must surely be one of the great moments of cinema, the young actress painfully tries to keep a grip on her kids, as they are wrenched from her by the powers that be on a darkened windswept platform at Victoria railway station. Her piercing screams haunted members of parliament to such a degree that questions were being asked in the house the following day.

Basil Dearden‘s films are often described as dull and worthy. Yet he was the man who in FRIEDA (1945) was taking on the anti-German feeling that was endemic in war-torn Britain. A young German nurse who saves the life of David Farrer polarizes a cosy English village when she arrives as his wife. In 1950, he more than touches upon racism in POOL OF LONDON, and this theme is later elaborated upon to a much greater degree in SAPHIRE (1959). But his piece de resistance is surely VICTIM (1961), where Dirk Bogarde whose dazzling elegance spawned a generation of dapper young barristers, plays a successful brief with an ambivalent sexuality. When blackmail raises its ugly face, he resolves to fight it, even though it will mark the end of his glittering career.

Like Carol White, Bogarde’s intense performance struck a chord with the British public and in many ways was instrumental in enabling the law on sex between consenting adult males pass more smoothly through Parliament.

Whilst lionized abroad, Loach tends to split opinion at home. People either admire his championing of the underclass, or mock his attempts to represent ordinary people with dignity. Yet he is the man who taught the younger generations of Spain (LAND AND FREEDOM 1995) and Ireland (THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY 2006) about their recent history. Dearden, on the other hand, who was addressing racism and homophobia over 40 years ago, is now mainly a footnote in cinematic History.

Audiences today would find Dearden’s style a little stilted and dated, whilst Loach’s films still retain a freshness. The use of Nigel Patrick as a leading man in SAPHIRE perhaps doesn’t help, but then Dearden was working within the studio system whilst Loach has always been a free spirited independent.

However you respond to Dearden’s films it has to be accepted that he always had his heart in the right place and his attempts to open audience’s eyes to injustices was prescient to say the least.

Ken Loach is still going strong I’m happy to say, and long may he continue to do so.

As a footnote Carol White, the Battersea Bardot, who moved a nation to tears as Cathy, died prematurely at the age of 48 having succumbed to the effects of drugs and booze, largely as a result of attempting to make it big in Hollywood. A sad ending for someone who’s touching performance was instrumental in housing countless homeless families.