Flame in the Streets (1961) User Reviews

Sort of like a British version of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner".

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 27 March 2015]

This film is a very enjoyable and courageous film about racism in London in the early 1960s. Apparently, there was a lot of negative feeling towards West Indians living there--and it's all quite similar to the feelings in much of the US at the same time.

The first portion of the film involves workers and their union. A major problem is that a lot of white workers are resentful of blacks--especially when they are placed in positions of authority. One of the union reps, Jacko Palmer (John Mills), believes in promoting people according to their merits--and goes to bat for these people.

Ironically, at the same time this is happening, Jocko's daughter is dating a Jamaican man. She is uneasy about how people will treat her but she loves the man and wants to marry him. When she tells her 'liberal-minded family', they show themselves to by hypocritical butt-heads--and the mother is truly vile in the way she talks about blacks and shows herself to be a shameful mother. How is all this to work out by the end of the film?

I liked the film and appreciate that it didn't pull its punches. I love "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" but at times it did seem a bit too sanitary and 'nice'. In contrast, this British film used extremely disturbing and graphic language--and better showed the ugliness of racism. Well worth seeing.

Still relevant today

[Maverick1962 · 8/10 · 11 January 2021]

Roy Ward Baker, who had a good track record for directing colourful films (eg: The Vampire Lovers), gives us an extremely interesting retrospective of racial tensions in London in the early 1960's with Flame In The Streets. Race issues still exist and it would be naive to pretend otherwise judging by some recent events in 2020 although mixed marriages seem to have cleared hurdles that were more of an issue in 1960 which is the dominant theme in this film. Sylvia Syms, never looking more beautiful, falls in love with a black colleague and wants to marry him, much to the aggravation of her prejudiced mother. Mum, played with gusto by Brenda De Banzie (never better) is shocked to her core when she discovers her daughter is seeing the young black man. Dad, played by John Mills is far more liberal and as a union leader, he's argued for equality in the workplace for recent immigrants and in a particularly punchy scene, fights for Earl Cameron to be promoted. Mr Cameron only recently passed away at the grand age of 102 by the way. What surprised me, looking back 60 years, is that the film seems so relevant still today with black and white issues. It will be better when things can eventually unite peacefully and I have seen improvements in my lifetime but we still have a long way to go otherwise we wouldn't still recognise some of the issues in Flame In The Streets so readily. It's a film that although dated is an interesting snapshot that many could learn from if they recognised the obvious human failings depicted in it, particularly from De Banzie's prejudice, some of the ugly thuggery carried out by white youths and the bad attitudes of some of John Mills' work colleagues. Beware also of offensive racial language although it would be dishonest if all these films were hidden away as we can learn from historical films like this and be aware.

Ethnic tensions on Guy Fawkes Day.

[ulicknormanowen · 8/10 · 19 November 2020]

Coming six years before "guess who's coming to dinner " , "flame on the streets ' is much more convincing ;here one does not meet a bourgeois family whose daughter wants to marry a future Nobel Prize ;it takes place in the British low middle-class ; it all happens in one day ,on Guy Fawkes '.

The fifth of November is a judicious choice: it's time for celabration,merrymakings in the streets , but it also means alcohol, violence,interracial resentment which has been building up for years. Kathy Palmer's plan does not bode well in that context : to marry an educated black schoolteacher (Peter Lincoln ,check the surname) in the early sixties is a thing her mom -who blames her husband for not climbing up the social scale- would never accept ,in a month of Sundays . The dad 's attitude is more ambiguous : in the meeting , superbly played by John Mills , he delivers a liberal speech, urging the men from the union to stand together , and championing the promotion as a foreman of a colored man ;but when confronted to his daughter's plan , without being so openly racist as his wife , his finer feelings have vanished into thin air and he tells the young schoolmistress what she should "ideally " do.

In the streets , meanwhile ,hatred is simmering , the riot is brewing : not only the angry young white louts ,but also the colored girls , or the gossip ladies who "warn " Kathy's mom , nobody is prepared to accept peace,love and understanding .So Kathy 's predicament is mirrored by this town on fire ; given the hostile milieu ,the denouement cannot ,by any means,considered a happy end .There was still a hard road to hoe.

`Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?' among the British working class

[DarrellN · 22 December 2003]

Some people might steer clear of this movie because of its race relations theme. They'd be missing a good movie.

Despite a few warts, this is mostly a well-acted and well-directed drama. To be sure, some of the issues that the characters confront are dated. However, other issues are as relevant today as they were in 1961 when this film was made.

Above all else, I enjoyed the dominating performance of the always reliable John Mills. I enjoyed his stirring speeches as Jacko Palmer, a leader in his labor union. I also enjoyed his sensitive handling of family issues, trying to negotiate a difficult path between the starkly conflicting viewpoints of his wife Nell and his daughter Kathie.

Some of the dialogue in this movie is painful to hear. A couple of white factory workers tell Jacko `We don't like to take orders from spades.' Nell Palmer tells her daughter `They're not like us . If you marry him (her West Indian boyfriend), you'll have a roomful of black children . The thought of them (Kathie and her boyfriend) in bed makes me sick . You're worse than a whore.' Nell uses the `N word' twice.

Not surprisingly, Kathie shrugs off her mother's acid-tongued advice. However, it's harder for her to ignore her father's advice, which is geared toward making her understand the risks of her (marriage) decision. Her reasoning is so clouded by love that she tells him `Prejudice will end someday.' Well, not in her lifetime, as we in the 21st Century know.

The movie is sometimes heavy-handed and melodramatic. Even the title is somewhat `inflammatory' (There is only one flame in the movie ... a large bonfire, a British tradition for the celebration of Guy Fawkes Day). The movie ends without a tidy resolution, but this is fitting considering the predicament of the characters and their social environment.

I reviewed this movie as part of a project at the Library of Congress. I've named the project FIFTY: 50 Notable Films Forgotten Within 50 Years. As best I can determine, this film, like the other forty-nine I've identified, has not been on video, telecast, or distributed in the U.S. since its original release. In my opinion, it is worthy of being made available again.

Good "issue" drama about race relations in 60s London

[lfisher0264 · 7/10 · 18 August 2007]

This film has just been screened on British television. I hope it comes out on DVD. The central characters are excellent, especially Brenda de Banzie as the mother who initially can't bear the thought of her daughter going out with a Jamaican. She has other problems, though - her husband is always out at union meetings and treats her like a piece of furniture, she thinks. De Banzie was good in parts like this. Wilfrid Brambell is in a rare straight role as old Mr Palmer, inserting Jiminy Cricket like advice. It's always fascinating to see a window on the past of the city where you live. Those (bathroom-less) workers' cottages by the river would now be desirable residences. And Notting Hill is full of people living on trust funds these days. The central character Gabe is likable and we hope he recovers from his burns. Minor roles give a natural performance and show that people who are "different" are as diverse as "we" are. Worth seeing.

Melodramatic but daring for its time, still relevant today

[gmaileatsyourlunch · 6/10 · 9 March 2024]

Flame in the Streets was adapted from a stage play and often feels like it. The acting is occasionally stilted and other times too heavy-handed. Not the worst offender nor entirely out of step of other performances of its mostly pre-method era. It's just that, given it's serious subject matter, it didn't need any extra help to wind up the audience and it might have done a better overall job if it was more clever and subtle in its approach. Additionally, some of the dialog, especially from minor characters, is very on the nose and almost comically rote. In some ways this film feels more like it's from the 30s or 40s and not the early 60s.

The plot involves a union leader who, full of righteousness, defends a black man's promotion to a minor management role in a manufacturing company. His progressivism and sense of fairness is challenged and turned on its ear when he learns his daughter intends to marry a black man. All of this takes place amid the backdrop of his crumbling marriage and a neighborhood that has started to boil over with racial tensions.

While it's easy to criticize the execution, I appreciated how directly and incisively it goes after its controversial themes, particularly that of the half-way liberal who will righteously advocate for the downtrodden as long as, on some level, he can continue to see them as lower and separate from himself, and those truly close to him. That hypocrisy is still very relevant today as many talk endlessly and fiery about inclusion, but at the end of the day still seem to be surrounded by people who look the same as they do.

Guess who's coming to meet the parents!

[sol-kay · 7/10 · 6 February 2010]

***SPOILERS*** Racial tensions reach a boiling point and explode on-Remember Remember the Fifth of November-Guy Fawkes Night in both the Plamer's Jacko & Neil, John Mills & Brenda De Banzie, professional and personal lives. It's then when there's a critical union meeting that Union President, of the packing and loading department, Jacko Palmer wants to have black Jamaicans immigrant Gabe Gomez, Earl Cameron, promoted to full, from acting, foreman at the factory.

Being the liberal and fair minded person that he is Jacko feels that Gomez is the best man for the job which makes many of the white workers at the factory, who feel they should get it, very angry at him. If things aren't bad enough for the take no guff from any of his union members Jacko they get a lot worse when he discovers that his only child blond and pretty school mistress Kathie Palmer, Sylvia Syms, is planning to marry black Jamaican and fellow schoolteacher Peter Lincoln, Johnny Sekka. It was Peter who among other things thought Kathie how to dive and swim at the local municipal swimming pool.

It's Jacko's wife Neil who at first found out about their daughter's relationship with Peter which brought out all the vile racism she had hidden deep inside her in her daughter marring one of "them" and thus not only disgracing herself and family but making her, and her future children, an outcast of white, the whitest of all, British society! As for Gomez himself he's also married to a White British woman Judy, Ann Lynn, who knows better then most how difficult a mixed marriage is and tries to persuade, without success, Kathie from tying the knot with Peter Lincoln.

The movie builds up to the tragic Guy Fawkes Night when all the tensions between Kathie her parents as well as Gomez's promotion comes full crucial during the evening's firework ceremonies. It's then that a group of drunken white rowdies, who work at the factory, showed up to crash the party attacking Gomez for not only being black and proud but not willing to buckle down under to them. While all this is going on both Jacko and Neil desperately try to talk their daughter Kathie out of marrying Peter who-together with Kathie-just happens to show up at the Palmer house to announce their engagement!

***SPOILERS*** Powerhouse ending with both Gomez and Jacko as well as some dozen young Jamaican immigrants taking on the white Bitish rowdies as the entire screen engulf into flames. Peter Lincoln a studious non violet person got into the thick of the violence in saving, at the risk of his own life, Gomez who was thrown by the drunken rowdies into a bonfire as well as helping Jacko and is fellow Jamaicans put the rowdies, who by then were too drunk to do anything, to flight. It was Peter' courageous and self sacrificing efforts that finally made both Jacko & Neil accept him as a future son-in-law. Thus proving that racism both begins and ends at home not, like Jacko always thought, on the job!

Fascinating time capsule, well intentioned but clumsy by modern standards

[percyporcelain · 7/10 · 25 November 2021]

About as politically incorrect as you could get, nevertheless you can tell this film was well intentioned and pioneering for its time, even if today it makes us wince. 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner' would come a few years later in the U. S. and this was a British precursor about the passions inflamed by interracial relationships at the time. So the acting's all pretty creaky and the cliches are everywhere but there's still a lot to enjoy, especially the London street scenes from the time of districts like Notting Hill which were so crummy then, yet so ritzy today.

Resonance

[TondaCoolwal · 9/10 · 12 January 2021]

Even taking into account the limitations of censorship at the time, this is still a very uncomfortable film to watch today as it exposes the underlying racism (called racialism at the time) within British society. Topical when it was made, following hot on the heels of the Notting Hill race riots, this movie still resonates in the light of recent events on both sides of the Atlantic. Inherent racism in people is realistically portrayed, particularly when ideals clash with reality. John Mills is Jacko Palmer, a shop steward at a furniture factory which employs a number of West Indians. One of them, Gabe Gomez (Earl Cameron) has been acting charge hand and is due for consideration for the permanent position. This brings out the worst in some of the white workers, and the "reasons" for their opposition are depressingly familiar. Others have worked longer at the factory and such like. Jacko, as a man of the people, supports Gabe with an impassioned speech at a union meeting and Gabe gets the job. Jacko's elation is short-lived however when his wife Nell (Brenda De Banzie) confronts him with the news that daughter Katie (Sylvia Syms) wants to marry a Jamaican! Suddenly he doesn't see people, he sees problems, and tries every sort of persuasion to try to get her and Peter (Johnny Sekka) to forget the idea. Nell particularly subjects Katie to a tirade of racist terms which it is no longer appropriate to repeat here. Peter also gives voice to some vile language in describing his experience of how he has been treated. "You smile at us with your mouth. But not your eyes!" he tells Jacko. In a separate thread, it is November 5th and a community bonfire party is disrupted by a gang of yobbos out to cause trouble particularly with the black men in attendance. Gabe tries to help but ends up in the fire. The film ends with Jacko telling Nell they both have to recognise that the world is changing and that they must change with it. As they meet with Katie and Peter there might seem to be a ray of hope, if not for the fact that viewers will recognize what society hasn't learned in the last sixty years. A bonus in watching this film is the wealth of genuine period detail for viewers like me. Washing in a bowl at the kitchen sink. Separate shirt collars. Schoolboys in short trousers and little girls in knitted pixie hoods with a scarf attached. Duffel bags. Edwardian school desks with inkwells. Penny-for-the-guy. Dips (O-U-T spells out!). Not forgetting old, much loved British cars and motor-bikes. Oh, and trolleybuses.

Like the story itself, a mixture of good and bad!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 13 July 2017]

A Roy Ward Baker Production for Somerset Films and the J. Arthur Rank Organisation. Not copyrighted in the U.S.A. Released in the U.S.A. in black-and-white by Atlantic Pictures and National Showmanship Films. New York opening at the Forum: 12 September 1962. U.S. release: 12 September 1962. U.K. release IN COLOR through Rank Film Distributors: 9 July 1961. Australian release in black-and- white through British Empire Films: 29 June 1962. 8,451 feet. 94 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Jacko Palmer works as a skilled craftsman at a furniture factory in a harsh, working-class district of London. Jacko is proud of his craftsmanship and his fair-mindedness. His father was a founder member of the trade union to which all the factory's employees belong. Jacko works hard for the union in his spare time and is considered by management and workers alike to be the voice of the workers. In the factory, Jamaicans work side by side with whites.

But Jacko's wife, Nell, is full of hate. She is an ordinary woman. She knows little of trade unions. Her problems are those of keeping home for her family. She knows and is highly sensitive to the prejudice that starts with a whisper over the garden wall. All the pent-up emotion of years comes to the surface. She accuses her husband of treating her like a piece of furniture.

VIEWERS' GUIDE: Because of the graphic race riot at the climax, both British and Australian censors declared this film unsuitable for general exhibition.

COMMENT: Some fine performances tend to hold this film together, despite the hysterical over-acting of Brenda de Banzie in a key role and the director's lack of skill with CinemaScope. Only in the final riot scene does the screen really come to life. Elsewhere the direction is either indulgent (especially to Miss de Banzie) or completely indifferent.

Fortunately, John Mills can carry the burden of anonymous direction with considerable flair. Only when he is forced to carry the dead weight of Miss de Banzie as well, does his charisma falter.

The charming Sylvia Syms also manages to bring conviction and finesse to her role. Earl Cameron and Johnny Sekka likewise impress, making the most of Willis' pithy dialogue.

In short, thanks almost entirely to most of the players, the gripping power of Willis' play still comes across to a fair degree on the big screen.

Tensions (rather stiltedly) boiling over...

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 7 March 2008]

Working class Brits are simmering under racial tensions, in the warehouses and factories and the public pool, the catalyst being a hard-working black man getting the factory promotion coveted by the petty, envious whites (wasn't that the same situation in "Black Legion" from 1937?). John Mills plays a union organizer trying to bring peace to the locals, but confounded by the unexpected romance between his white daughter and a black teacher from the West Indies. Ted Willis adapted his play "Hot Summer Night", forgetting that screen material needs to be less theatrical, more subtle and sensitive. Each character spouts off with such pedagogic fervor, vigorously puffed up with their own righteous anger, that the main theme of tolerance is diffused (with that faux-calypso music playing, you'd think there would be more dancing than feuding!). OK melodrama; it beat "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?" to the screen by several years, and a few of the performances are thoughtfully rendered. ** from ****

Worth watching

[reviewmr · 10/10 · 16 March 2021]

A look at racial tension back in the early 60's This film still carries a strong mention even in today's modern world Great cast , with excellent performances from John Mills and Sylvia Sims 10/10 Look out for it and watch if you get chance.

working class racism

[peterwburrows-70774 · 7/10 · 1 March 2021]

A good attempt to portray the relationship between working class whites & the West Indian community. Teddy boys on bonfire night a bit naff and attacking car is weak. Best character is Nell Palmer whose overt racism is a tour de force. I never met anyone like her.

Far Too Stagey

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 1 August 2012]

This film is more of a social document than an entertaining piece of film making.It was made just 3 years after the infamous Notting Hill Riots.This was at a time when immigrants were just starting to settle in the Uk and met some resistance from the local population.I would add that prejudice was still rife in the population at the time.Both myself at school and my father in public office suffered anti semitism.So this country was good for a good shake up.I doubt that this film did much to advance the cause.It is just so dull at times i am sure that it would not have done that well commercially at the time.It is odd to note that John mills here plays Sylvia Sims father when a couple of years earlier in "Ice Cold In Alex" he portrayed her potential lover.

Brave social documentary

[pricejbp · 9/10 · 2 March 2014]

Watching this film in 2014 is a startling experience. As it relates to a particular moment in English social history, it has an element of documentary about it, but it retains much of its power all the same. The action, which all takes place on one day, centres around a dedicated union representative Jacko Palmer, his wife Nell and daughter Cathy. While Jacko is strident and principled in his defence of the rights of a black worker, he finds it harder to come to terms with a prospective black son-in-law. It is however Nell who has the biggest issues with the possibility.

The CD case apologises that racist language (in particular the N word) is used, but the film serves to contradict a sometimes expressed view that the N word was once common benign. It is Nell who uses it in a desperate outburst and that moment is, and is intended to be, deeply shocking to the audience, the other characters and even to Nell herself. Jacko realises he does know his wife, Cathy realises the depth of the prejudice she has to combat and Nell is brought face-to-face with the dark side of her own personality.

It says much for the quality of the film and the acting that Nell is not entirely dehumanised by her outburst; her prejudice is the combination of fear and marital neglect which has warped her personality. The young people reject attempts to separate them and in the end Nell, agrees to try to rise above her bigotry to keep her family together and perhaps because she feels a sense of shame about the attitudes that she has found within her.

The film closes with the four characters each facing profound individual challenges in order to make their new lives work. In different ways though they have each showed enough strength to lead us to believe they have a chance. With hindsight, that was correct. Mixed race marriages of that period did often work and led the way to a fairer society.

Hard Hitting and Powerful

[crumpytv · 9/10 · 23 August 2022]

Considering this was made over 60 years ago it still packs a powerful punch, not least because of the use of extreme racial language which is not considered PC today.

The sound and vision is amazing. It could have been made last week.

Sylvia Syms and John Mills give stellar performances.

I wonder how it would be received today by the snowflake generation.

The fights at the end, possibly inspired by the 1958 Notting Hill Riots, somewhat distracted from the real issues within the film. These were about relationships and prejudice, non more so than Brenda de Banzie's shameful character.

Historically this is a very interesting and important film.