SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

It took me a long while to purchase this one (by which time, most of the output by DVD-producing company All Day Entertainment – with whose president, film historian David Kalat, I had the pleasure of corresponding on a number of occasions – had gone out-of-print) and some more before I actually sat down to check it out. Having finally watched this, I must say that the mainly gushing reviews which I had read on the Internet upon the DVD's first appearance – citing the film as a neglected masterwork (though not quite director Dmytryk's best, in my opinion) were very much accurate; incidentally, the main feature bears the official title given above rather than that attached to the DVD i.e. Christ IN CONCRETE, actually the name of Pietro Di Donato's original source novel. Knowing of its pedigree – Dmytryk having famously been one of The Hollywood Ten, jailed for refusing to appear before HUAC (the House Un-American Activities Committee) in view of his alleged past Communist leanings – and its theme – the domestic and professional troubles of struggling Italian immigrants in the construction business with a 1920s New York setting – I had expected to be somewhat unenthused by it, but the reverse proved to be the case, thanks largely to Dmytryk's unerring eye for detail and a handful of naturalistic performances (an achievement which seems all the more remarkable when considering that it was entirely filmed in England with a mostly British cast!). That said, one of the two leads was a genuine Italian – Lea Padovani – and the other an American, fellow victim of the blacklist Sam Wanamaker: both of them are terrific playing husband and wife, though he remains attached to friendly Kathleen Ryan, and their consistently precarious economic situation (exacerbated by the Wall Street crash of 1929) shatters the wife's dream of owning her own home. Also appearing in the film are Charles Goldner (the old man who actually got the couple together), Bonar Colleano, William Sylvester and George Pastell as Wanamaker's team-mates at work, Sidney James(!) as another construction operative who harbors ambitions to start his own company and wants the hero to get in on the business with him, and Karel Stepanek as the elderly landlord of the protagonists' house. In view of its inherent grittiness, unusual compositions (employed during melodramatic passages) and doomed hero, the film has been rightfully likened to the then-prevalent noir style – in which, as it happens, Dmytryk had already proved himself several times while still employable on his home turf. Despite its generous length (115 minutes) and the occasional Marxist viewpoint (it is clearly stressed that Wanamaker's downfall transpires because he dared to stand out from the crowd, even if all he wanted was to improve his family's conditions), the proceedings compel attention all the way through – culminating in the unforgettably harrowing sequence of the hero's death, engulfed in cement after the weak structure he had been supervising gives out. Regrettably, I did not have time to look into the numerous extras featured on the double-sided "Special Edition" DVD – I had actually made a resolution in this regard at the beginning of the year, but which I am now finding myself increasingly unable to accommodate! In closing, I cannot fail to mention Benjamin Frankel's superb music score – no wonder that one is even given the option to listen to it in isolation on the All Day disc.

Hounded out of the States as a Commie (fellow DGA member Sam Wood outed him), Edward Dmytryk actually made (in the U.K.) that left-leaning agit-prop proletariat 'noir' HUAC vainly searched Hollywood for. The film never got a proper American release, Dmytryk returned, 'named names,' served time, & found himself upgraded to 'A' projects which never lived up to his promising early 'B' stuff. Pietro Di Donato's once influential novel tells a fatalistic story of an Italian/American brick layer, always on the verge of better times, who loses his soul when he rises to foreman during tough depression times. Dmytryk does some impressive work within the restrictions of an indie U.K. production, but he's ultimately defeated by a twice too earnest script and a lackluster cast that has to work overtime to fake that Brooklyn flavor. Five years on, another HUAC alumni, Elia Kazan, would get this sort of thing right in ON THE WATERFRONT, which you may have heard of.

I read the book about 2 years ago. It's a beautifully written and well told story of a son's love and devotion towards working, supporting his mother, upholding his deceased father's dignity, and surviving through the toughest of times, the great Depression. The book version told a story that I thought was easily adaptable to film, and when I saw that the movie version had been released as a DVD, I ran out and bought a TV, a DVD player and rented the film.Now what astounds me is that, considering the great impact of the original story, and how easy as I say it would have been to simply tell it on the big screen, why did the filmmakers toss the whole thing out and produce a most conventional and predictable typical film of that era? This movie should really not be associated with the original novel- there's really very little comparison.As an original story, average- 5/10. As an adaptation, poor- 2/10.

After many years in political purgatory, the film version of Pietro Di Donato's masterpiece CHRIST IN CONCRETE comes to beautifully restored DVD. The story of a humble bricklayer (Sam Wanamaker) who wants only the best for his family, and is briefly seduced by becoming "managment" holds up beautifully. Wanmaker is a wonderful, natural actor (I kept thing Actor's Studio before there was such a thing!) and though I had known him in later years, I never realized how dynamic he was as a leading man. (No surprise then that his daughter Zoe is one our finest actors.) Lea Padovani is magnificent, and the rest of the cast give superb performances as well. (What a kick it is to see William Sylvester, Dr. Heywood Floyd of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY as a young man in his first film!)The director, Edward Dmytryk, clearly influenced by Greg Toland as well as the neo-realismo films of the time, uses fascinating camera angles, moody lighting and a steady pacing that makes the nearly two hour running time seem half that time.I had loved the novel and had always wanted to see the film. What a joy it is to finally see it in near pristine condition. Thank you ALLDAY films for finding and restoring this masterpiece. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED................