Turn of the Tide


Turn of the Tide is a British drama film directed by Norman Walker and starring John Garrick, Geraldine Fitzgerald, and Wilfrid Lawson. It was the first feature film made by J. Arthur Rank. Lacking a distributor for his film, Rank set up his own distribution and production company which subsequently grew into his later empire.
The film is set in a North Yorkshire fishing village, and relates the rivalry between two fishing families. The actors include John Garrick, Geraldine Fitzgerald, and Wilfrid Lawson who speak in the local accent. The work is based on the novel Three Fevers by Leo Walmsley.

Cast

Writing for The Spectator in 1935, Graham Greene remarked that the film was "unpretentious and truthful", and "one of the best English films ha yet seen". Rejecting contemporary critical comparison of the film to Man of Aran, Greene suggested that where Man of Aran had featured sentimentality, Turn of the Tides director "Norman Walker is concerned with truth, and the beauty his picture catches is that of exact statement".
Although the film was originally considered a box-office disappointment it was eventually voted the sixth best British movie of 1936.
Britmovie called it a "refreshingly compassionate drama that benefits from being filmed on location at Robin Hood's Bay and Whitby."