Flame in the Streets
| Flame in the Streets | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by |
Roy Ward Baker (as Roy Baker) |
| Produced by | Roy Ward Baker (as Roy Baker) |
| Written by | Ted Willis |
| Starring |
John Mills Sylvia Syms Brenda De Banzie Earl Cameron Johnny Sekka |
| Music by | Philip Green |
| Cinematography | Christopher Challis |
| Edited by | Roger Cherrill |
| Distributed by | J. Arthur Rank Film Distributors (UK) |
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Release date
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22 June 1961 (UK) 12 September 1962 (US) |
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Running time
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93 mins |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Flame in the Streets is a 1961 film directed by Roy Ward Baker and based on the 1958 play Hot Summer Night by Ted Willis. It opened at the Odeon Leicester Square in London's West End on 22 June 1961.
Racial tensions manifest themselves at home, work and on the streets during Bonfire Night in the burgeoning West Indian community of post-war Britain. Trades Union leader Jacko Palmer fights for the rights of a black worker but struggles with the news that his own daughter, Kathie, is planning to marry a West Indian, much against his own logic and the hysterical prejudice of his wife Nell.
Hot Summer Night premiered at the Bournemouth Pavilion on 29 September 1958, subsequently reaching the New Theatre (now the Noël Coward Theatre) in London's West End on 26 November. It ran for 53 performances, closing on 10 January 1959. Directed by Peter Cotes, the cast comprised John Slater (Jacko), Joan Miller (Nell), Andrée Melly (Kathie), Lloyd Reckord (Sonny Lincoln), Harold Scott (Old Man Palmer), Joyce Howard (Judy Gomez) and Richard Walter (Frank Stephens).
"After a leisurely start," noted The Stage, "the play builds up into a passionate, almost violent piece of theatre," though in The Spectator Alan Brien called the play "Ted Willis's new dramatic pamphlet" and suggested that it failed to rise "above the level of the living newspaper." In later years Peter Cotes called the play "one of the first pieces about relationships between black and white people," noting that it "reaped a fine press in a limited run and Willis was treated with more respect as a stage playwright than he had ever been before." By Willis's own account, "Another less pleasant reaction came in the form of some hate mail."
Three weeks after the play's closure, it was televised on 1 February 1959 as part of the ABC series Armchair Theatre. The director was Ted Kotcheff and the West End cast was retained, with the exception of Joan Miller, whose role was taken by Ruth Dunning. According to The Stage, "The production ... was shot mostly in close-up giving greater emphasis to black and white."
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