1951 was a fruitful year for great director Losey ("the prowler" ,the remake of "M" which compares favorably with Lang's classic ,and "the big night"which suffers by comparison ).
It should be not dismissed so easily : the father/son relationship would be resumed in "time without pity" in which the father sacrificed his life to save his sentenced to death son ; had the screenplay not been watered down , it would have been the other way around here .
The first two scenes echo:George is harassed by youngsters his age ,because he does not want to kiss a girl , the act by which you become a man ;then a birthday celebration turns into a nightmare and the scene is directed by Losey with an impressive economy of means : Georges attends the beaten up of his papa , nobody intervenes ,and the boy feels helpless and humiliated ; nothing could have been more moving than the hand of the tortured man which raises when everybody has left the place .
In the short space of one night,George will seek revenge ,recalling the events of the afternoon (the cymbals of the drummer and the cane which comes down on his dad's back) ,and trying to prove himself he can be a man.
John Drew Barrymore Jr portrays a hung-up young man , who suffers from the absence of a mother ; his face,always looking tense, reflects his inability to cope with the outside world. And who realizes ,that ,to come to terms with the adult life you have to accept hard realities (the father's final revelation)
It should be not dismissed so easily : the father/son relationship would be resumed in "time without pity" in which the father sacrificed his life to save his sentenced to death son ; had the screenplay not been watered down , it would have been the other way around here .
The first two scenes echo:George is harassed by youngsters his age ,because he does not want to kiss a girl , the act by which you become a man ;then a birthday celebration turns into a nightmare and the scene is directed by Losey with an impressive economy of means : Georges attends the beaten up of his papa , nobody intervenes ,and the boy feels helpless and humiliated ; nothing could have been more moving than the hand of the tortured man which raises when everybody has left the place .
In the short space of one night,George will seek revenge ,recalling the events of the afternoon (the cymbals of the drummer and the cane which comes down on his dad's back) ,and trying to prove himself he can be a man.
John Drew Barrymore Jr portrays a hung-up young man , who suffers from the absence of a mother ; his face,always looking tense, reflects his inability to cope with the outside world. And who realizes ,that ,to come to terms with the adult life you have to accept hard realities (the father's final revelation)