Alternative versions
The 1931 version
More information about and clips from this version can be found on screenonline.
Gainsborough Pictures at the Shepherd Bush Studios produced the 1931 version of Hindle Wakes, directed by Victor Saville. Michael Balcon, a key figure in the British film industry from the 1920s to the 1950s, was head of Gainsborough. Gaumont-British had acquired an important financial interest in this production company in 1928. The film also included John Stuart, again playing the role of the mill-owner's son, Allan. Belle Chrystall played Fanny renamed Jenny in this version.
This was clearly a less costly version than the 1927 film. It is 1800 feet shorter in length, with much less location work. There is actual footage of Blackpool, but it appears to be mainly stock footage (some, apparently, from the 1927 version). There is an extended interior sequence, but the production suffers from the contemporary problems of adjusting to the new sound technology. Quite often both the staging and the acting seem rather ponderous and lacking the fluidity of the 1927 version.
In terms of plotting, the story is presented in a similar fashion to the Elvey version. Both films expand on the play by depicting the events in Blackpool. Both plays stick closely to the theatrical script for the events in the second half, the return to Hindle. Both films present Fanny's classic statement of Lancashire lass independence, but also imply the possibility of a new romance with a mill hand - one of her own.
One important difference is in the performances of Estelle Brody and Belle Chrystall. Brody adds a note of wistfulness to Fanny's rejection of Allan at the climax. This wistfulness is completely absent from Chrystall's performance which accords more closely with the original Houghton script.
The 1952 version
In 1952 the Monarch Company, essentially a British B-movie production company, made a new version, casting Lisa Daniely as Jenny and Brian Worth as Allan. The film failed to present the distinctive Lancashire working class feel of the play. In a factory scene, Jenny is shown as smitten with Allan before the Wakes Week. This possibly reflects 1950s' moral scruples, attempting to offer emotional justification for the affair. The Blackpool segment of the film is considerably expanded but the climatic Hindle sequences seem rather perfunctory. And Jenny's flat rejection of Allan lacks motivation given the romantic implications of the early scenes.
