A Kind of Loving

Based on the best selling novel from 1960 by Stan Barstow. 'A Kind of Loving' directed by John Schlesinger, hit British cinema screens in 1962 and just like the 1960 film, 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' brought cinema goers into the gritty realism world of working class Northern England.

Set against the somewhat bleak, Industrial North.The film revolves around such places as the factory, Dance halls and pubs.Something that was all too familiar to Stan Barstow.

Trying to shrug off his 'working class traditions' Vic Brown lands himself a 'white collar' job as a draftsman in a local engineering firm. It is in the factory where he notices Ingrid, one of the typists, who he eventually asks out to the cinema.The awkwardness of their relationship is highlighted by their inability to express their feelings. Ingrid worries that Vic thinks she is just a common girl. Whereas Vic wonders whether Ingrid is as interesting as he first thought.

   Their romance displays an obvious lack of sentiment. Vic thinks he is in love with Ingrid. But then on the other hand he thinks that he can't stand the sight of her.Ingrid wants nothing more than to fall in love. Get married, get a home and have children.Vic would like the stability of a wife, a house and children but the nagging question of 'Is there more in life?' keeps popping into his head confusing him.

It's  not until Ingrid's mother goes away for a few days that the relationship develops into a full blown affair.Then Vic realises that Ingrid is just another girl, a 'conquest', and he stops seeing her.They meet up again at a firm's Dance where Ingrid breaks the news to Vic that she is pregnant.Vic is suddenly sucked into the stark, frightening reality of life and he feels obliged to 'do the right thing' and asks Ingrid to marry him.

Then his troubles really begin... his mother-in-law looks down her nose at him with obvious dislike and is so overbearing and dominates their lives she begins to drive a wedge between them.

Ingrid has a miscarriage and her mother deliberately fails to tell Vic that she is in hospital. This is too much for Vic who now realises that he need not have married Ingrid, but the decency within takes over and he becomes determined to find a small house for him and Ingrid to make a fresh start together with their own 'Kind of Loving'.

One of the all time classic scenes from the film is the one where Vic staggers home drunk and is confronted by his Mother-in-law that leads to the famous quotation from that scene "How dare you! How dare you say such filthy disgusting things!You come into this house drunk, filthy drunk!You're filthy!You talk filth! You ARE filth.You're filth!You filthy pig!You filthy,disgusting pig! Filth.FILTH!" of course you have to watch this classic scene to appreciate the confrontation and when Vic is sick on the floor while his mother-in-law is ranting at him is sheer poetry.