As you may have heard, legendary British actor and director Richard Attenborough died last night at the age of 90. As a tribute I have decide to list three of, what I consider to be, his best films.
Feel free to talk about your favourite Attenborough films in the comments section.
Brighton Rock (1946)
In his breakthrough role, Attenborough plays violent teenage gangster Pinkie Brown, who murders a news reporter at a funfair. The police believe it to be suicide, but Pinkie is taking no chances, even going as far as marrying a waitress who could prove he did it so she can't testify against him.
I saw this for the first time on TV a couple of years ago and was surprised how violent it was for a film made in the 1940's. Pinkie is one of the screen's great anti-heroes and Attenborough makes him genuinely intimidating, which is pretty amazing considering he was one of the nicest men on the planet. At the same time he lacks any real worldly experience, because he is after all only 17. He's also very religious, absolutely terrified that he's going to hell, yet still sins frequently. We never find out why, but this ambiguity makes the character more interesting.
Also look out for a pre-Doctor Who William Hartnell as a member of Pinkie's gang.
The Great Escape (1963)
Based on a true story, the film see's a group of POW's planning to escape from a German prison camp during World War Two. Featuring an all star cast, including Attenborough, Steve McQueen, James Garner and Charles Bronson, this is a genuine classic and one of my all time favourites. Plus it's got the best theme tune ever. You've probably seen it, but if you haven't, go out, find a copy and watch it immediately.
10 Rillington Place (1971)
As notorious serial killer John Reginald Christie, Attenborough gives what I feel to be his best performance. Christie murdered several women, including his own wife. John Hurts also gives an excellent performance as Timothy Evans, the man who was wrongfully hanged for one of the murders, but this film belongs to Attenborough. He is incredibly creepy and the murder scenes are genuinely disturbing. Like Brighton Rock, he plays against his cuddly nice image and makes the character completely unlikeable. There's a genuine sense of satisfaction when he gets caught by the police in the films final scene. Sadly, the film isn't very well known, I first heard about it when I happened to find the DVD in a charity shop a few months ago, which is a terrible shame as it's an excellent piece of British filmmaking.
I'd like to leave off with a few words from the great man himself, in an interview he gave in 2008.
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