"Don't let the bastards grind you down!"
An early entry in the British "kitchen sink" genre, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) shot Albert Finney to stardom. Karel Reisz provides a stark, affecting adaptation of Alan Sillitoe's novel.Arthur Seaton (Albert Finney) is a disgruntled Nottingham factory worker. He lives with his parents (Frank Pettit and Elsie Wagstaff), spends weekends drinking and chasing women with his pal Bert (Norman Rossington). He carries on an affair with married Brenda (Rachel Roberts) while courting Doreen (Shirley Anne Field). Things grow serious when Brenda becomes pregnant and her husband Jack (Bryan Pringle) finds out.
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning basks in the bleary details of postwar England. Reisz shows Nottingham as a factory town with sooty skies and filthy creeks, filled with worn-out workers and snotty bourgeoisie. Sillitoe's script bristles with profanity and sexual frankness ahead of its time: Brenda spends much of the movie seeking an abortion. For fun, Arthur and Bert fish in polluted streams and shoot BBs at their neighbors. The only respite is a seedy carnival which Reisz makes a bleary, boozy nightmare culminating in violence.
Why shouldn't Arthur feel trapped? His parents watch television while he slaves as a machinist, escaping through booze and sex. But Arthur's wounds seem equally self-inflicted. He bitches about bourgeois phoniness like an English Holden Caulfield, but he has no ambition and little idea of self-improvement. His hobbies leave him battered, physically and psychologically. All he's got is surly charm and throbbing discontent.
Albert Finney turned down Lawrence of Arabia to make this film. Finney provides a rough-hewn, imposing performance far more authentic than Laurence Harvey or Richard Burton's stabs at Angry Young Men. He's the real deal, a working class Brit possessing brusque charm and regional accent rather than a slumming star. Michael Caine, Tom Courtenay and Terence Stamp may not have emerged without Finney's success.
Rachel Roberts plays Brenda with charm and muted desperation; Shirley Anne Field, in contrast, is appealingly self-directed. Norman Rossington's good-humored performance makes a fine foil for Finney. Rossington became a prolific character actor, notably in A Hard Day's Night and The Charge of the Light Brigade.
Movies like Saturday Night and Sunday Morning don't always age well. Originating in a bleak, self-critical moment in English history, the Angry Young Man and his kitchen sink often seem anachronistic. Nonetheless, Saturday provides a memorable protagonist played by a unique star.