The Wind of Change

The Wind of Change is a 1961 British drama film directed by Vernon Sewell and starring Donald Pleasence, Johnny Briggs and Ann Lynn. Taking its title from the famous "Wind of Change" speech given by British prime minister Harold Macmillan in South Africa in February 1960, it is one of the earliest British films to tackle race as an issue, focussing on disenchanted working-class white youth finding an outlet for their frustrations in racial hatred. The film is set around the coffee bars and homes of the Notting Hill district of West London, scene of the notorious 1958 Notting Hill race riots. Sewell called it "a nice movie... not because of me but because it was a bloody good story". Plot Frank (Briggs) is an unemployed, discontented and rebellious teenage Teddy Boy, living at home with his mild-mannered father (Pleasence), domineering mother (Hilda Fenemore) and sister Josie (Lynn). Frank harbours a deep-seated resentment and hatred towards the black people he sees as flooding Notting Hill and taking all the jobs. He spends his time hanging around with a gang of similar youths who all share his racist views. After an evening spent wandering round the local coffee bars, the gang go looking for trouble and decide to beat up a black youth for kicks. They are inflamed to see a black boy accompanied by a white girl, and they chase them through the dark streets before cornering them and launching a vicious assault on the couple using fists, feet, knives and bicycle chains. The boy is so brutally beaten that he later dies from his injuries in hospital, and the girl is stabbed during the melee. Frank is horrified when he realises that the injured girl is his sister.