The End of the Road (1954) User Reviews

Is this Finlay Currie's finest hour?

[dhensonuk · 7/10 · 11 January 2016]

Finlay Currie plays with great intensity and subtlety a old man reaching the end of is life as useful worker and family patriarch. His nervous breakdown is superb to behold. Modern actors could learn a lot about how to put feeling into lines by watching him. He can convey weariness with every bone in his body.

The rest of the film represents a vanished, old-fashioned and very sexist age. Yes, it does have a 1930s feel to it but the 1950s was still not yet the modern age we think. This film is probably truer to life in some ways than many other films of the period. The direction is good - lovely use of light and shadow, also understated but effective angles and movement of the camera.

The relationship with his grandson is deftly handled, the only thing can break through his exterior. Not saccharine but realistic.

The ending of course is a happy one, but not necessarily the expected one.

Seek this one out. It will surprise you!

Finlay Currie Is Gold plated

[malcolmgsw · 6/10 · 14 July 2010]

This film was shown last night as part of the NFTVA 75th anniversary celebrations.It was made by Group 3 an independent company set up by the NFFC in 1951.It originally comprised such disparate talents as John Grierson,Michael Balcon and John Baxter.However due to a general falling out between themselves everyone bar john Baxter left.He ended up as Production Controller.The company's main problem was getting a decent distribution for the films.the circuits really weren't that interested.The company folded in 1955 having made 22 films,some of them quite decent.This is a modest film which still has a timely tale.All about Mick Mack an electro plate layer who has to retire because he has reached the retirement age.He tries to get a job but all he can find is a night watchman's job.Initially his family have too much on their minds to even notice he has been retired.However when they do recognise this it has a startling impact on their lives.Currie ends up having a nervous breakdown.The film is resolved in a fairly pat and conventional way.It has to be said that this type of film would become redundant in a few years with the introduction of the angry wave eg Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.Every thing has a rather pre war feel to it,maybe influenced by Baxter?The married couple have twin beds,the husband wont let the wife go out to work,the work force all seem rather complaisant and not a hint of a union anywhere.Currie gives a sterling performance in the sort of film which would disappear with the emergence of TV drama.

Wrong Timing

[jromanbaker · 8/10 · 28 September 2020]

The UK had its own ' New Wave ' but I can imagine in 1954 that the country was not ready for it, needing 'entertainment ' instead of the real streets and factory settings of the time. It also takes on the subject of old age with a good performance by Duncan Lamont who is forced to retire from his job. Later on in the decade the UK was ready for such films, and with the ground breaking ' Room at the Top ' ( which was in some ways less uncompromising than this film in its need for sexuality and an X certificate to become a success ) and audiences were ready to see representations of ' reality ' around them. As for ' The End of the Road ' Wolf Rilla shows the near breakdown of a family and treats old age with understanding and contrasts it beautifully with the beginning of life of a young boy. Seeing them both, the very young and the very old walk hand in hand walking down the road is full of tenderness and compassion. Both in their stages of life vulnerable and this is vividly depicted. Well worth seeing,

Make Way for Tomorrow

[richardchatten · 7/10 · 21 November 2019]

The trials of a crusty old duffer who doesn't want to retire seems far from the reality of life 65 years later when both men and women have to work not as empowerment but simply in order to make ends meet, and people are being forced to work longer and longer hours and long to be able to afford a comfortable retirement in the foreseeable future.

What this typically earnest Group Three production is really about, of course, is the loneliness and boredom of old age, which is a problem that isn't going to go away in the near future. (Finlay Currie at 76 looks as strong as a horse in this film and continued almost right up to his death at the age of 90; few others are that lucky.)

One foot in the grave

[Prismark10 · 5/10 · 17 June 2017]

Finlay Currie plays Mick-Mack, a veteran electroplater forced to retire from his factory. He is left embittered and now regarded as a burden on his family, he has to swallow his pride and claim benefits from the post office.

He reluctantly takes on a job as a nightwatchman but loses it when he leaves his post, with his son and wife arguing he is heading for a nervous breakdown, but at least his knowledge and skill comes to the aid of the factory owners.

In some ways this is the precursor to the provocative British kitchen sink dramas that would emerge in the late 1950s. Currie gives a skillful portrayal of a working man who has reached the end of his tether, his family contemplating putting him in a home.

It is a small scale film, Currie plays a proud man who at the same time can irritate you.