Bitter Harvest

Saw this at the Dominion, Twickenham, Middlesex, in November 1963 - it was the B-movie to a film I've forgotten - I happened to see Bitter Harvest second in the programme. I enjoyed the London setting of the film - Jenny has a room overlooking the railway tracks at Paddington but the film had an overall feeling of terrible sadness and waste - I went and looked at the dark river Thames flowing under the footbridge to Eel Pie island - then I went home and heard that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. So that's what I was doing when...

Perhaps somewhat dated by today's standards, but, nevertheless, an interesting tale about a girl from Wales who ends up in London and then begins what she perceives to be her climb up the ladder of success. Each time she meets a new person, the viewer learns a little bit more about her personality. Where will it all end?

Of course this film is dated. Why else watch it? The story is too ugly today. This is glossy and the characters and clothes lovely.

This film has a long beginning, no middle and a short ending. It is still well worth watching.

Jennie is a young pretty girl from a working class family. She lives in Wales which is made to look like the dreariest place on earth. She is dying to get to London. Eventually she does but it is not under the best circumstances.

Jennie lucks out. She meets caring and decent Bob, who goes to protect her. She lies and claims to be pregnant to garner more sympathy.

Janet Munroe was quite lovely and a very good actress. John Stride does a good job as the kind and patient man who falls in love with her,

How does it turn out? Does Jennie build a life with this devoted young man or does she risk it all for a chance at the limelight?

This movie turned up on a local television station in the midnight to dawn slot and I watched it purely by chance. I had never heard of this British movie nor were any of the actors/actresses familiar to me. Despite this the opening scene, musical theme and the scene after it made me want to stick around until the end and learn the full story.

The movie is about Jenny, who predictably is poor and leads a dull ordinary life. Influenced by the models she sees in television and magazine ads, she dreams of a life full of glamour, excitement, beautiful clothes etc. A naive Jenny, in an unexpected and unplanned manner finds herself in London. She has no money and no clothes except for the clothes she's wearing. Her dream does eventually become a reality, but she becomes a victim. Was it all worth it?

The movie begins in the present, flashes back to the not so distant past and back to the present for the final scenes. Jenny's life is shown up to a certain point. After that you are left to fill in the gaps of what might have happened to her, but the clues make it obvious.

Parts of the story were predictable and you could see the story unfold from a mile away. This however did not ruin my enjoyment of the film. Part of the enjoyment was the ending. I expected a more predictable ending, but instead I was surprised and a little stunned.

The theme of the movie seems to be poor, happy and in love versus rich and miserable. The final scene to me suggests that Jenny would have been better off if she had stayed with the man who loved her even though they were living in poverty.

An entertaining dramatic film with a good but depressing storyline. It was worth staying up for.

The stunning Eastmancolor photography of Ernest Steward, Acker Bilk's swanky Jackie Gleason like score, (particularly the lush main theme) and location shooting in London, do much to distinguish this cautionary tale of a young woman treading down the well worn primrose path.

Janet Munro convinces as a the naive Welsh rustic, ("Jennie Jones") after La Dolce Vita, to which end she tosses decency aside, and heads to the big city, in her pursuit of a theatrical career. That her career is only to be that of "kept woman" is the discovery leading to the titular harvest.

Performances are all very apt, (particulary Francis Matthews, who nails the characterization of a louche libertine)and Director Peter Graham Scott certainly keeps our interest.

But just when one is most absorbed, most ready to watch Jennie's world unravel, the film ends, and one comes away feeling slightly cheated, with the sense that this MIGHT have been a great film, with a running time of 30 more minutes.

Still, it invites and deserves consideration alongside "Darling," and "Taste of Honey," as films that were also exploring unsavoury misfits in swinging 60's Great Britain.