A 1940 film about the miners’ battles
This week, and for another few weeks, I will introduce films for the 40th anniversary of the 1984-5 miners’ strike. The first of those, The Stars Look Down (1940), was based on the 1935 novel by A J Cronin and directed by Carol Reed. It is set at the fictional Neptune Colliery in the North East and centres on Davey Fenwick (Michael Redgrave), son of a local miners’ leader, Bob Fenwick. Davey intends to go to college and hopes with education he can assist in the improvement of conditions in the mining industry. But Jenny Sunley (Margaret Lockwood) persuades him to abandon his studies. They are...