The Stars Look Down 1940

In a hard‑bitten coal town, miners led by Robert Fenwick, Edward Rigby, strike to protest the extreme danger of flooding in a deep section of Neptune Colliery. The action strains families as hunger gnaws, and even the union’s support for the mine’s owner, Richard Barras, Allan Jeayes, is tested. After days of privation, some miners break into a butcher’s shop to loot, and Robert Fenwick tries to intervene but is arrested, forcing the miners back to work. Back home, Davey Fenwick, Michael Redgrave, earns a scholarship and leaves for university, while his brother Hughie Fenwick, Desmond Tester, watches the upheaval with a mix of pride and worry.

While studying, Davey reconnects with Joe Gowlan, now a bookmaker and philanderer Emlyn Williams. They share a meal at a restaurant with Gowlan’s girlfriend Jenny Sunley, Margaret Lockwood, the daughter of Gowlan’s landlady. Jenny tries to provoke Gowlan’s jealousy by feigning affection for Davey, but he is not easily swayed.

Davey soon finds a new path through Stanley Millington, Cecil Parker, who helps him secure a better job with the aid of Laura Millington, Linden Travers. This opportunity tempts him away from university life and into a teaching post, altering the course of his ambitions and relationships.

As he tutors Arthur Barras’s son, David Markham, Davey uncovers a troubling secret: Gowlan has renewed a covert deal with Barras to mine in the dangerous section of the pit. Outraged, Davey tries to rally the trade union to call a strike, but his motives are questioned once it becomes clear that Gowlan has rekindled his relationship with Jenny, complicating loyalties and personal choices.

The new contract proceeds, and disaster strikes at the mine, underscoring the perilous stakes beneath the surface of work, love, and ambition.