''There Ain't No Justice'' is a 1939 British
sports
Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...
directed by
Pen Tennyson and starring
Jimmy Hanley,
Edward Chapman and
Edward Rigby
Edward Coke MC (5 February 1879 – 5 April 1951), known professionally as Edward Rigby, was a British character actor.
Early life
Rigby was born at Ashford, Kent, England, the second son of Dr William Harriott Coke and his wife, Mary Elizabe ...
. The film is based on the 1937
novel of the same name by
James Curtis.
Plot summary
Tommy Mutch (Jimmy Hanley) is a garage mechanic and small-time boxer. With his family in financial difficulty he needs to find money in a hurry. As luck would have it he meets boxing manager Sammy Sanders (Edward Chapman). Sammy assures Tommy he can get him lucrative main event bouts.
Tommy is promoted as the next boxing star which is reinforced with a series of convincing wins. However, Tommy discovers that the bouts were fixed by a gambling syndicate. He realises now that he has been set up by his manager and is expected to take a fall.
He has little choice but to go-ahead but needs to come up with a plan. One that will guarantee a financial return for his family while also hitting the syndicates in the pocket.
Cast
*
Jimmy Hanley as Tommy Mutch
*
Edward Rigby
Edward Coke MC (5 February 1879 – 5 April 1951), known professionally as Edward Rigby, was a British character actor.
Early life
Rigby was born at Ashford, Kent, England, the second son of Dr William Harriott Coke and his wife, Mary Elizabe ...
as Pa Mutch
*
Mary Clare
Mary Clare Absalom (17 July 1892 – 29 August 1970) was a British actress of stage, film and television.
Biography
Daughter of George Alfred Absalom, Clare was educated at Wood Green secondary school, first worked in an office but a loan ...
as Ma Mutch
*
Phyllis Stanley
Phyllis Stanley (30 October 1914 – 12 March 1992) was a British actress.
Personal life
During World War II, she shared a flat in West End of London with the Scottish heiress Jane Corby.
Partial filmography
* '' Leave It to Blanche'' (193 ...
as Elsie Mutch
*
Edward Chapman as Sammy Sanders
*
Jill Furse as Connie Fletcher
* Nan Hopkins as Dot Ducrow
*
Richard Ainley as Billy Frist
*
Gus McNaughton
Gus McNaughton (29 July 1881 – 18 November 1969), also known as Augustus Le Clerq and Augustus Howard, was an English film actor. He appeared in 70 films between 1930 and 1947. He was born in London and died in Castor, Cambridgeshire, Cast ...
as Alfie Norton
* Sue Gawthorne as Mrs. Frost
* Michael Hogarth as Frank Fox
*
Michael Wilding as Len Charteris
* Richard Norris as Stan
* Al Millen as Perce
*
John Boxer as Mr Short
*
James Knight as Police Constable
Production
James Curtis adapted his own novel, ''There Ain't No Justice'' to provide the screenplay for the film. He had done so the year before for one of his own novels,
''They Drive By Night'', for the
film of the same name. As with that adaptation he found himself having to remove areas of dialogue and story that would not get by the censors of the time. Many of these would be depictions of graphic violence against men rather than the sexual nature of his previous novel.
This was the first film directed by Pen Tennyson, who had served as Assistant Director to
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...
from 1934. He would go on to direct two further films before being killed during World War II.
The film features an uncredited role by real life boxer
Bombardier Billy Wells
William Thomas Wells, better known as Bombardier Billy Wells (31 August 1889 – 12 June 1967), was an English heavyweight boxer. Fighting under the name "Bombardier Billy Wells", he was British and British Empire Champion from 1911 ...
, best remembered as one of the
gongmen featured in the
Rank Organisation
The Rank Organisation (founded as the J. Arthur Rank Organisation) is a British entertainment conglomerate founded in 1937 by industrialist J. Arthur Rank. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the Uni ...
films logo.
Release and reception
It was released theatrically in the UK with the slogan "Real people, Real problems, a human document". Due in part to its distinctive realistic portrayal of the boxing world it became a critical success.
However, the author
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading novelists of the 20th century.
Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquired a re ...
, having praised the previous year's James Curtis adaptation (''
They Drive by Night''), was not convinced. He considered the film to be timid and too refined in its depiction of the subject matter.
It is available on DVD in the UK on Volume Eight of Network's Ealing Studios Rarities Collection. It is often shown at film revivals in both the US and UK and was shown in May 2010 as part of
BFI Southbank
BFI Southbank (from 1951 to 2007, known as the National Film Theatre) is the leading repertory cinema in the United Kingdom, specialising in seasons of classic, independent and non-English language films.
It is operated by the British Film Inst ...
's "Capital Tales" season.
There Ain't No Justice, BFI "Capital Tales"
/ref> It was also shown on the London Live television channel on Sunday 13th Sept 2015.
See also
* List of boxing films
This is a list of films about boxing featuring notable sports films where boxing plays a central role in the development of the plot.
__TOC__
List
See also
* List of sports films
* List of highest-grossing sports films
References
{{Spo ...
References
External links
*
There Ain't No Justice at BFI Film Database
{{Pen Tennyson
1939 films
1930s sports drama films
British sports drama films
British crime drama films
Films based on British novels
1939 crime drama films
British black-and-white films
British boxing films
Films set in London
Ealing Studios films
1939 directorial debut films
Films directed by Pen Tennyson
Films with screenplays by Pen Tennyson
1930s English-language films
1930s British films
Films scored by Ernest Irving
English-language crime drama films
English-language sports drama films