Ealingfilmfan

Up the Junction shouts the ancient news that the rich are different from the poor: they have more money. Into broken-down Battersea comes the classy Kendall, searching for herself. In a few days she finds a factory job, a frowzy flat and a blond boy friend. The appalling squalor of the slums appeals to Kendall, largely because it seems to have the beat of life that was missing from her deadly home across the river in wealthy Chelsea.

Suzy soon gets an acrid whiff of reality when a new-found girl friend at the factory finds herself pregnant. The girl nearly dies at the hands of a drunken abortionist, then recovers and gets engaged to the boy responsible for her trouble. The night of their engagement party, he is knocked off his motorcycle by a lorry and dies in the street; a tragedy has its echo in Kendall's life when her own lover steals a car for their vacation and gets sent down for six months. "I'd much rather have taken the bus," she pleads, lending dignity to a line that, spoken by another actress, might have seemed only maudlin.

Junction is stained with the sooty slum aura that marks much of Poor Cow (TIME, Feb. 9), and with good reason. Both films were adapted from books by Novelist Nell Dunn. Though the story too often has the quality of pulpy sociology, Junction is saved from indistinction by Director Peter Collinson's extraordinary spirit of place, and by Suzy Kendall's chameleonlike ability to look and sound like ten different women in the course of a single film.




An excellent, albeit brief review, along with "Blow up" this rates as one of my favourite films from the London scene and the "swinging sixties"..

A very young looking Dennis Waterman puts in a very convincing performance, Alfie Bass is well cast as the seedy antiques dealer, and Suzy Kendall is superb as usual.....

Worth watching for the shot of the "E" type Jaguar at the end of the film alone..:-)

"Just room for one inside sir"

merryowen

I loved that movie.

I first saw it at the Granada Cinema which was a couple of hundred yards up the hill from Clapham Junction.

I always remember the scene where Dennis Waterman explained to Suzy Kendall that his usual seduction technique was to grab a handful and hang on until he either got what he wanted or what he deserved. In Ms Kendal's case however, he accepted that she was his social superior and as such he had no idea where to start.

The whole audience just about piddled itself laughing.

HayleyG

Did the actress Carol White appear in this film? Or am I confusing her with Cathy Come Home?

Steve Crook

Carol White did the Wednesday Play version of Up The Junction, but not the film version. Maureen Lipman played her part (Sylvie) in the film version

Steve

Carmel

loved this film i class it as one of my favourites, it does show the difference in class rich and poor although we all think the rich are happy with their money and this film shows us not everyone is happy being rich and having every thing.

Live each day to the full because one day it will be your last.

Joe Fraguela

Up The Junction also happens to be my all-time favourite film. I love the performances from Suzy Kendall, Dennis Waterman, Adrienne Posta, Maureen Lipman, Liz Fraser, Michael Gothard, Queenie Watts and Alfie Bass.

The scenes with Suzy Kendall and Dennis Waterman are extremely good with a mixture of the harsh realities of life in Battersea and the tender moments they share when he takes her to the house where he grew up and is due to be demolished.

I never get tired of watching this film. The superb use of real london locations. The acting is extremely good and the music by Manfred Mann captures the Swinging 60's perfectly.

It's high time this film got a proper DVD release with extras i.e Audio Commentary from some of the stars, a then and now location feature, the original theatrical trailer, plus the brilliant music of Manfred Mann.

I believe this film justifies a proper DVD release, hopefully one day. In the meantime I will have to contend with my own copy of Up The Junction recorded from TV many years ago and subsequently transferred to DVD, listening to the original LP Film Soundtrack and gazing at the original film poster which I have in my collection.

Lady Lois

The film is not a patch on the TV play... too much swinging Sixties to grasp the awfulness of the people and their lives. The TV play captured the spirit of the novel. A very depressing theme... because it was so real. The tally man I found particularly repulsive... but real. The film seemed to polish everything up into a more acceptable and clear cut representation - all cliche and stereotypical.

doojeen

As mentioned elsewhere on the forum, Up The Junction is now available in a superb quality transfer to DVD for a mere £7. That' s the good news - the bad news is that there are no extras.

Bernardo

The television version is available at the rare television web site though the quality of some copies I have are a bit iffy.

doojeen

Which site is that, Bernardo?

josfab

What's the general feeling about the ending of the film? Will they get back together again when he gets out of prison?

Rick C

I have an original 30 x 40 poster also!

davidb

i reckon she gets bored with slummin it and heads back to chelsea and never sees him again !

GRAEME

And worth remembering that the book wasn't really a novel at all - it's a collection of sketches and vignettes drawn from Nell Dunn's experiences as a socialite heiress living on "the wrong side of the tracks" and working in a sweet factory.

She was married to and living with Cathy Come Home writer Jeremy Sandford at the time. It all looks a little bit like an ethnographic experiment in experiencing the squalor of "ordinary people's" lives, really now. But their hearts were in the right place and between them they produced a small but significant body of socially aware works in print, on TV and in the theatre.

All men leak.

zaphod

Filmed vitually in my home back yard - I was born and bred on Lavender Hill just a few years before filming - haven't seen it for years.