The Brave Don't Cry

Having pioneered the cause of screen realism in the 1930s, one-time documentarist John Grierson and socially conscious director John Baxter joined forces to produce this deliberately downbeat reconstruction of a true-life Scottish mining disaster. Philip Leacock, Grierson's former assistant, admirably captures the stoicism of the hundred or so men trapped in a suffocating chamber following a landslide. However, he is less successful in eliciting credible performances from the non-professionals who make up the worried villagers as prodigal miner John Gregson leads an audacious rescue. Even though it exploits actual locations, this is markedly less affecting than GW Pabst's studio-realist classic, Kameradschaft.