Product Description

It is a moment before dawn, and the river traffic on the Thames begins to ease its way through the fog. The River police find the body of a young girl left dry by the ebb tide. Her body is brought ashore and her possessions examined. Who is she? And what drove her to take her own life? For the young married couple (Judi Dench and Norman Rodway) love brought them together, but now marriage and a child have driven them apart. The young husband would rather stay out than return home to a wife kept awake by a teething baby daughter. Their story is witnesses by their friend (Joe Melia), a bachelor, who is exposed as the loneliest of them all. At the same time two young lovers meet outside a nightclub. Desperate to make contact, but afraid of what their involvement could mean, the girl shies from physical contact and the boy cannot cope with his feeling of being trapped by the love she offers. Judi Dench s outstanding performance as the young mother gained her the British Film Academy s 1966 Award as the Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles. Four in the Morning was shown at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival and won the Specialised Cinemas Award: Prix des Cinemas d Art et d Essai.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9622 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-06-23
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Formats: Dolby, PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 94 minutes

Synopsis
A young couple with a child experience the trials and tribulations of marriage. Features Judi Dench in her first films role.

Review
Writer-director Anthony Simmons shows two couples in crisis, tying them in with a gimmick, which works. There's an unidentified girl found in a river. Simmons gives the scene of the discovery and study of the drowned girl a metallic, sombre documentary flavor. A seemingly rootless young man picks up a singer he knows after her work. At four in the morning they romp around the Thames' shores, steal a boat, leave it, almost touch each other emotionally but part still uncommitted. Hints of the instability of both are carefully and intelligently suggested. The other couple is shown as a woman waiting for her husband, out on the town with a bachelor crony. The baby cries and exasperates her. The growing incompatibility of the couple is deftly outlined in bold, dramatic strokes. Judi Dench has the right checked hysteria for her role of the wife with a disposition towards love that makes her poignant. Ann Lynn and Brian Phelan are also effective as the other couple with Joe Melia a pointed counterpoint to the married couple with his personal problems. --www.variety.com/reviews

Customer Reviews

Dark and brooding, yet beautiful piece of drama from the 1960s.

Dark and brooding - and at times depressing drama with apt title. This movie nevertheless is a forgotten gem from 1965 starring two great actresses: Ann Lynn and a young Dame Judi Dench.

Two different couples have their own problems and difficulties. One couple's problems are apparent (Jude and Norman) but the troubles of the 'nameless' couple are unknown. This is a film with a tragedy (for anyone who is able to read more into it) and has plenty of atmosphere.

Judi Dench plays, Jude, a struggling and frustrated mother of a small baby with a neglecting husband, and in those days, there was very little a woman could do to escape such circumstances. The beautiful and fabulous actress Ann Lynn plays a nameless woman who has very different troubles, but the movie does not reveal what they are, and so the Viewer is left to assume rather a lot - make of it what you will...

Despite how much we need them, this movie shows men at their worst, but is an interesting piece of drama from the 1960s.


NOTE: There is an interesting piece taken from this film on YouTube that has been beautifully edited to accompany the number one hit 'Where Are You Now' by Jackie Trent from the same year. Well worth taking a look! It will make you want to buy this movie - trust me!

Moody and atmospheric 60s social drama
A moody and atmospheric black and white film from 1965 with a great John Barry score. An intriguing social drama, framed by an intrigue about the identity of a body pulled out of the Thames. Nice Thames imagery, shown in widescreen. This is one of the best of British B&W films of the sixties. It won a lot of prizes in Europe. The DVD includes a short documentary film by the director called "Bow Bells". For me, this film is definitely one to keep.

A drab affair .
Having read the review of this film , I was expecting a gritty British thriller . It is in fact something of a drab and dreary affair . The opening scenes of a girls body being dragged from the river having nothing at all to do with the main part of the film . The ending leaving you up in the air , and no wiser as to what happened to the characters . A disapointing film .