An amusing film relating to mill-town working-class mores and cosy domestic habits in the pioneering late-'60s/early-'70s adapted from Bill Naughton's stage play. Some of the perfectly formed visual props are very interesting with a sense of the vaguely surreal in the mundane:- a canister of 'Vim' bleach, jars of 'Heinz mayonnaise, 'HP brown sauce' and the dense sugary pink and lemon-yellow layers of a sliced 'Angel cake' in the Crompton family's kitchen and dining room; dark mahogany cabinets and bright lime-green patterned curtains in the living room; vinyl records and colour posters; shift scenes in a mill; cigarette street advertisements (Marlboro or Embassy Regal?); views of redbrick industrial Bolton and the bleak rugged Pennines; they all record time so well. A quartet of Yorkshire-born actors are featured including Huddersfield's Marlborough and Cambridge-educated James Mason and Keith Buckley; Leeds-born Diana Coupland ('Bless this House') and Bingley-born Rodney Bewes, while teenager Len Jones is from Leigh. Although its soap qualities are in contrast to Mason's flair role as Captain Nemo in '20000 leagues under the Sea' (1954) he gives a very good interpretative exposition as the moustachioed, flat-cap sporting, mill-town pater familias, Rafe Crompton. He had great affection for the rubric of Huddersfield and the mill-towns of the Pennines in real life and there are references to Handel's 'Messiah' which is the staple of Huddersfield Choral Society in the film. In fact, 1970 was an exciting year in Huddersfield as the 'Terriers' won promotion to the top flight featuring classy Shelf-born soccer star Frank Worthington and Trevor Cherry.
Review of Spring and Port Wine
