Displaying items by tag: Ray Brooks

SOME PEOPLE

UK, 1962, 93 minutes, Colour.

Kenneth More, Ray Brooks, Annika Wills, David Andrews, Angela Douglas, David Hemmings, Harry H.Corbett, Cyril Luckham.

Directed by Clive Donner.

Some People is very much a film of its era, rather difficult to watch in later decades. However, it highlights some of the social changes in the UK in the early 1960s, the emergence of Teddy Boys, leading into the era of the Rockers.

The film was well received at the time, highlighting the social issues, especially amongst teenagers and young adults, as well as the possibilities for some kind of help or rehabilitation. It is the era of the Duke of Edinburgh awards for help with young people.

Quite a lot of the film shows four friends, Teddy boy types, riding their motorbikes, going through red lights, in the courts, told off by the magistrates, resentful, causing mischief. The leader is played by Ray Brooks, his later career was very much in television series, with David Andrews as the very surly and imposing type, Andrews acting for a while but then moving into film and television direction. Not so much in the limelight here, but the third member of the group is played by David Hemmings, Blow up soon to come and his much stronger career as actor and director.

The star of the film is Kenneth More, veteran, very popular in the 1950s with comedies like Genevieve and Doctor in the House as well as war films like Reach for the Sky.

He encounters the group as they move into a church, having been moved along by various authorities, and one of them talented pianist, playing. They encounter Kenneth More as the leader of the choir, much more tolerant of the youngsters, especially with his daughter and becomes involved with them, offering them opportunity for the church to be a place after choir practice for their music, developing a group, the talent in playing, the local girls talented with singing – and a number of songs with music by the very popular composer of British films of the time, Ron Grainer. Again, the songs are very much of the period of the early 1960s.

There is some background of the work in industry and aviation which Kenneth More is involved in – and some possibilities for the youngsters to get some jobs.

So, a journey back to the 1960s, the move away from polite and controlled stories in film (and in real life), the film not knowing what the rest of the 60s and changes would be like.