The film is taken from the novel by A.J. Cronin and is about a mining village in North East England, the site of some famous narratives about coal-mining, as is Wales. The main actors are Michael Redgrave, in a towering performance, Margaret Lockwood as his flaky and faithless wife and Emlyn Williams in yet another role as a smooth, two-faced and unscrupulous con-man.
Emlyn Williams was born in an impoverished coal-mining area of North Wales and were it not for him drawing the attention of a superb English teacher at school, who encouraged him to work hard enough to get into Oxford, he would likely have ended up in the pits at 15 himself. I'm working my way through the films of Williams as I find him intriguing, not just as an actor but as a polymath writer, theatre actor and director. His bisexuality gave him a particular edge in the cinema, something he discusses here briefly at 20:07minutes about his preparation for the role of Caligula in the aborted 1937 "I Claudius". And you can see the results in the scene immediately after Williams' comments: "...vain, spiteful, lecherous and cruel...". Emlyn Williams had that untrustworthy mien and sexual ambivalence, ideal for motion pictures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPf4kbZFT10
The depredations of coal-mining are front and centre in "The Stars Look Down", as is the splendid direction of Carol Reed who was, by this stage, very early into a distinguished career. My heart stopped for a second during a scene inside the mine after a water incursion and disaster because of the way Reed created a couple of the shots. It was the real distinguishing feature of a master film-maker. "The Stars Look Down" is very confronting in parts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3FIuVudrjY
An extraordinary film, highly recommended.
