christoph404

I agree, Berkoff's hysterical histionics are best saved for his stage performances! I thought the performances of the Kemp brothers were pretty good though considering they had very little if no acting experience. Looking at the film now their performances hold up well especially as their more familiar personnas of padded shouldered pop stars with Lady Di hairstyles are long forgotten memories! I think at the time people found it hard to associate the Kemp brothers in the roles of hardened east end gangsters on the basis of their pop star image but I think the boys did well!

Steve Crook

I aree, but the best performance was given by Billie Whitelaw as their Mum.
Mind you, I expect no less from her

Steve

batman

Wasn't it some drama set up north ....

Bats.

Jingle bells Batman smells ... I heard that at school Daddy.

BAT QUIZ 16 HAS JUST BEEN POSTED IN THE COMPETITION THREAD - 06/01/09

Steve Crook

And they were probably friends in it

Steve

batman

I saw his one man shows 'The Tell Tale Heart' and 'Shakespeare's Villains' on stage a few years ago .... he was stunning. It's a shame his acting style rarely transfers well to the screen.

Bats.

Jingle bells Batman smells ... I heard that at school Daddy.

BAT QUIZ 16 HAS JUST BEEN POSTED IN THE COMPETITION THREAD - 06/01/09

Capture King

as they did in the excellent tv drama series Our Friends In The North

stevie boy

NOW, that was perfect casting

Brief Encounter

Steven Berkoff was very OTT in The Krays - but I still thought he did well.

Hackett

The Krays came from a poor and sordid world. The basement flat that Jack the Hat was murdered in was squalid and had damp it was not the flash place Medaks film made it out to be. But then again Chris Craig didn't run around the roof fireing his gun in the air but that didn't stop Medak putting it in "LET HIM HAVE IT". Both poor films for me due mostly to Peter Medaks Direction.

NappieB

Billie Whitelaw was wonderful, but the rest of the movie was sorta repressed... as if the producers were scared of the censors...or something!!

"It gets late early out here!" - Yogi Berra on a trip to the country

Steve Crook

"Repressed"? In what way?
It had an 18 certificate in the UK. That's the highest you can get without being banned. It was an 'R' certificate in the States. That doesn't look like they were scared of the censors.

I thought it was the very ordinariness of some of it that made the rest of it more dramatic. Like the scene where Mrs Kray got all the big bad gangsters to check their shoes

Steve

batman

I don't get the repressed thing either .... it was restrained and not exploitational in the way that some gangster films are. I liked the ordinariness of it too, it showed that gangsterism is not always a glamourous way to earn a crust, despite the nightclubs and film star connections et al.

Bats.

Jingle bells Batman smells ... I heard that at school Daddy.

BAT QUIZ 16 HAS JUST BEEN POSTED IN THE COMPETITION THREAD - 06/01/09

NappieB

OK, OK..."restrained" would probably be a better word (thanks, Batman!). I saw it on TV here in the USA about 2 years ago...with commercials. It's quite possible the commercial breaks screwed up the "flow" so to speak - and who knows what cuts were made...

Nevertheless, from the TV rendering that I saw, that vital sense of menace was unfortunately absent...

"It gets late early out here!" - Yogi Berra on a trip to the country

batman

I reckon you are right about the commercials. The film has a slow burn which leads relentlessly to the violent finale. Regular ad breaks would certainly mess that up. Try and get to see it 'uninterrupted', I think you might re-assess your initial view of the film.

Bats.

Jingle bells Batman smells ... I heard that at school Daddy.

BAT QUIZ 16 HAS JUST BEEN POSTED IN THE COMPETITION THREAD - 06/01/09

Brief Encounter

I'd hardly call the Chelsea Smile scene 'restrained'!