Adapted by blacklisted writer Ben Barzman from Pietro di Donato's 1939 novel and shot entirely in the UK (with the exception of the opening credits sequence) in 1949, after expatriate director Edward Dmytryk -- one of the Hollywood Ten, who later named names in hopes of salvaging his US career -- was blacklisted by HUAC, this clear-eyed tale of Italian immigrant life in 1920s New York remains under-seen and underappreciated decades after its truncated theatrical release.
Italian-American bricklayer Geremio (the prolific, Chicago-born Sam Wanamaker, yet another HUAC casualty, in his second film role) marries a sheltered girl from the old country, Annunziata (Lea Padovani), whose only desire is a house of her own. She's devastated when she learns that Geremio does not, in fact, own a house as he had implied in his letters, but reconciles herself to saving aggressively to buy one. Just as the young couple -- by now the parents of several children -- are within striking distance of the $750.00 down payment on old friend Jaroslav's (Karel Stepanek) modest house, the Great Depression sends them back to square one and worse: Geremio, who has risen to the position of foreman, must choose between protecting the men who work for him -- proud, skilled workers desperate for paid employment -- from unsafe on-the-job conditions and placating the ruthless businessmen who pay their salaries and care only about the bottom line.
Flawed but powerful, Dmytryk's populist fable, long considered a lost film, was briefly released in the US before being suppressed for its politically subversive content. Writer di Donato was the son of an Italian bricklayer killed in a construction accident, and Dmytryk -- the Canadian-born child of Ukrainian immigrants -- brought a visceral immediacy to di Donato's story of immigrants seduced and betrayed by the American dream. Cinematographer C. Pennington Richards brought a vivid noir sensibility to the film's images, and Wanamaker and Padovani are stunning as the couple whose hopes are strangled by the bottom line -- Italian actress Padovani's performance is all the more astonishing for the fact that she barely spoke English and learned her lines phonetically. What the film lacks in subtlety i t makes up for in intensity: From the details of Italian immigrant life to Dmytryk and di Donato's brutal evocation of dreams deferred, CHRIST IN CONCRETE is a stunning reminder that America's promise of decent compensation for back-breaking work has always been hostage to a complex web of economic and socio-political influences and is ripe for rediscovery. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh