The End of the Road (1954 film)

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The End of the Road
The End of the Road film Opening titles (1954).webp
Opening titles
Directed by Wolf Rilla
Written by
Produced by Alfred Shaughnessy
Starring
Cinematography Arthur Grant
Edited by Bernard Gribble
Music by John Addison
Production
company
Distributed by British Lion Films
Release date
  • 15 November 1954 (1954-11-15)
Running time
76 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
Language English

The End of the Road is a 1954 British second feature ('B') [1] drama film directed by Wolf Rilla and starring Finlay Currie, Duncan Lamont and Naomi Chance. [2] It was written by James Forsyth and Geoffrey Orme, and produced by Group Three Films with funding from the National Film Finance Corporation, and distributed by British Lion.

Contents

Plot

Mick-Mack, a veteran employee at the Jericho Works strongly resists when he has retirement forced upon him by his employers. He says he will retire when he is 90. All he has to show is a small clock as a retirement present which he places on the family mantelpiece. After retirement he takes a job as night watchman at the works. The employers decide that only Mick-Mack can resolve the troubles they are having in the electroplating section. He discovers it is drops of honey, from bees in the roof, which are ruining the process.

Cast

Production

It was made at Beaconsfield Studios [3] with sets designed by the art director Michael Stringer.

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "The End of the Road begins as if it were a serious study of old age, and its difficulties when spirit and energy do not diminish with years. The problem is satisfactorily posed; Finlay Currie's dignified and accomplished performance carries off awkward moments such as the improbable scene Mick-Mack makes when he is presented with a retiring gift. The stock working-class husband and wife of Duncant Lamont and Naomi Chance are sufficiently good to support the impression of Mick-Mack's difficulties at home. But after this lengthy and quite satisfactory exposition, the film deteriorates into over-wrought scenes of the old man's wanderings of mind and body; and finally to a wholly artificial solution and a conventional, unlikely happy ending." [4]

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "good", writing: "interesting study of the problems of old age." [5]

The film historians Steve Chibnall and Brian McFarlane note that The End of the Road was "rightly praised" at the time of its release by Kinematograph Weekly as "provocative and purposeful entertainment", and they add that it is "characterised by a real feeling for cramped working-class life and for the gap left when suddenly one is no longer required to be anywhere on a regular basis". [1]

References

  1. 1 2 Chibnall, Steve; McFarlane, Brian (2009). The British 'B' Film. London: BFI/Bloomsbury. p. 249. ISBN   978-1-8445-7319-6.
  2. ↑ "The End of the Road". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 20 February 2025.
  3. ↑ "The End of the Road (1954)". BFI. Archived from the original on 22 February 2019.
  4. ↑ "The End of the Road". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 21 (240): 156. 1 January 1954. ProQuest   1305823512.
  5. ↑ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 306. ISBN   0-7134-1874-5.
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