Fire Within

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) - Reisz

Whatever people say I am, that's what I am not.

With his rugged good looks and swagger, Arthur (young Albert Finney) is a hard working, hard drinking factory worker. Constant trouble maker in arrested development, he has to face the consequences and think about settling down when he gets his girlfriend at the moment- a wife of a co-worker, Brenda (Rachel Roberts) pregnant and meets pretty, young Doreen (Shirley Ann Field). Would he change his ways and become like his characterless parents who only know work and TV?


Saturday Night is a matter of fact depiction of working class. "All I'm out for is a good time - all the rest is propaganda." Arthur declares in his narration early on. Finney's at his best being a brut without real menace. Straight laced Roberts plays an object of desire for a good looking working class bloke here and again in This Sporting Life for young Richard Harris three years later.


Quoted and loved by many British rockers- from Steve Ignorant of Crass to Morrissey to Arctic Monkeys, I can see how Arthur's take-it-or-leave-it attitude appealed to many young men before Travis Bickle age.

Wrong Play!

The Dresser (1983) - Yates


The setting is WWII London. Norman (Tom Courtenay) is a dresser to an aging Shakespearean actor, known only as Sir (Albert Finney in his career best). The only reason the senile actor can marginally perform his Othello, Macbeth, Richard III, King Lear night after night without fail is because of Norman. He dresses, washes, coerces, pep-talks, encourages, feeds lines to, takes insults and rants from the old man.

Sir has a close call and ends up in a hospital after he throws a fit in the bombed out London street. As the theater staff contemplate on shutting down the production, they find him returned to his dressing room and being incoherent. Is he going to be somewhat ready for tonight's performance of King Lear?

With Ronald Harwood (The Pianist, Diving Bell and the Butterfly)'s blistering script, the two of the most gifted British actors go mano-a-mano. Watching them in real time as Norman harangues downright deranged Sir to get ready is an exhausting experience. Norman is at once Salieri to Sir's Mozart, Felix to Oscar, Ratso to Buck, King to Fool. Thanks to Courtenay, Norman's affection and devotion for his master is real and heartfelt. Very awesome.