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No Resting Place

The brilliant British documentary filmmaker Paul Rotha made his feature-film debut with 1950's No Resting Place. Filmed on location in Ireland, the film is a lightly fictionalized study of that country's itinerant workmen. Michael Gough plays tinker Alec Kyle, whose life is thrown into turmoil when he accidentally kills a man. Kyle spends the rest of the film evading Guard Mannigan (Noel Purcell), a civil servant who relies on instinct rather than scientific deduction to get his man. Without ever trying to elicit sympathy for his characters, director Rotha manages to compellingly detail the miserable living and working conditions of Ireland's nomad artisans.

Top Cast

  • Michael Gough

    Michael Gough

    Alec Kyle

  • Eithne Dunne

    Eithne Dunne

    Meg Kyle

  • Noel Purcell

    Noel Purcell

    Guard Mannigan

  • Brian O'Higgins

    Brian O'Higgins

    Tom Kyle

  • Jack MacGowran

    Jack MacGowran

    Billy Kyle

  • Diana Campbell

    Diana Campbell

    Bess Kyle

  • Maureen O'Sullivan

    Maureen O'Sullivan

    Nan Kyle

  • May Craig

    May Craig

  • Fred Johnson

    Fred Johnson

Overview

The brilliant British documentary filmmaker Paul Rotha made his feature-film debut with 1950's No Resting Place. Filmed on location in Ireland, the film is a lightly fictionalized study of that country's itinerant workmen. Michael Gough plays tinker Alec Kyle, whose life is thrown into turmoil when he accidentally kills a man. Kyle spends the rest of the film evading Guard Mannigan (Noel Purcell), a civil servant who relies on instinct rather than scientific deduction to get his man. Without ever trying to elicit sympathy for his characters, director Rotha manages to compellingly detail the miserable living and working conditions of Ireland's nomad artisans.

Rating

6.3 / 10
3 Reviews
0 Popular

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