Pink String and Sealing Wax
Pink String and Sealing Wax's setup suggests a juicy potboiler but this melodrama from Robert Hamer fails to integrate its subplots
Victorian Brighton is the setting for this mildly absorbing gothic melodrama, directed by Robert Hamer and starring Googie Withers as she approached the height of her post-war fame.
The film begins by detailing its two parallel worlds in 1880s Brighton: the first a stifling middle-class household ruled by the puritanical patriarch and local chemist Edward Sutton (Mervyn Johns) and the second a twilight underworld woven around Pearl Bond (Withers) as the frustrated wife of the local tavern keeper. These two worlds soon collide as Edward’s repressed son David (Jackson), in an act of rebellion, wanders into the seedy tavern – becoming infatuated with Pearl and drawn into a plot to poison her abusive husband in the process.
This set-up suggests a juicy potboiler, but sadly this never materialises. Hamer manages to dispel any tension with marginal subplots that are given far too much screen time – one involving Edward’s daughter’s singing aspirations becomes tiresome even as it begins – and the film is constantly hampered by pedestrian direction.
Thankfully Withers gives a characteristically riveting performance as Pearl, her delivery bringing to life the sterile script and making Pearl’s amoral machinations almost sympathetic. Ultimately though the film fails to fully integrating the two worlds and by its rushed ending it has become an unmemorable film from a talented director. Hamer would go on to redeem himself just a few years later by giving us the excellent Kind Hearts and Coronets.
Extras
Spare extras are provided with a behind-the-scenes stills gallery and a standard restoration comparison. Of greater interest are a pair of interviews – one with Googie Withers’ daughter Joanna McCallum and one with Melanie Williams about the role and impact women had at Ealing film studios.
Released by StudioCanal – order your copy here