Not All Right at all!

Fascinating to juxtapose this film alongside that other British film about industrial relations made about the same time, the satirical I'm All Right Jack. The Angry Silence is of course a much more gritty (grim even), wholly serious vision of the blue-collar workplace in 1959. Among the best scenes is Tom's young, Italian migrant wife Anna (Pier Angeli) delivering a stirring rebuttal of the behaviour of Tom & Joe, telling them both exactly how it is! One of the interesting aspects of The Angry Silence is the way the women, Pat & Anna, come across as the strongest, most moral personalities, particularly when contrasted with Joe & Eddie, the leader of the thuggish rocker youths (one 1960 reviewer described them as punk thugs!). Sobering & worrying note is struck at the end when the union agent provocateur scuttles away on a train free to continue his manipulative & divisive work. Joe (Craig) belatedly redeems himself in the film's climax after finding his moral compass & backbone.

Trivia: Co-star Michael Craig co-wrote The Angry Silence with his brother Richard Gregson who later was married to Natalie Wood.