Brighton Rock (US: Young Scarface) is a 1948 British gangster film noir directed by John Boulting and starring Richard Attenborough as violent gang leader Pinkie Brown (reprising his West End role of three years earlier),[5] Rose Brown (Carol Marsh) as the innocent girl he marries, and Ida Arnold (Hermione Baddeley) as an amateur sleuth investigating a murder he committed.

[7] In Brighton in 1935, a gangster named Kite is found dead, shortly after a newspaper published a story exposing local rackets and gang wars.

While Fred is attempting to elude the gang, he meets brassy, outgoing Ida Arnold, a middle-aged entertainer currently appearing in a local show.

The police think that Fred's death is a heart attack or suicide, but Ida suspects foul play and begins her own amateur investigation.

Pinkie warns Rose not to speak about the person who left the card, and as part of gaining her confidence, asks her out on a date.

Pinkie is also being pressured by Colleoni, the older and more powerful leader of a rival gang, and owner of the large Cosmopolitan Hotel.

Rose cherishes the record, wrongly assuming that it contains Pinkie's profession of love, although she does not have a gramophone to play it on and is unaware of its true contents.

Dallow objects, saying Rose's death is unnecessary because Ida is about to leave Brighton, having been unable to find any convincing evidence against Pinkie.

When Ida enters the bar, the paranoid Pinkie decides to carry out his plan for Rose's death, and takes her for a walk on the pier.

Rose, and Pinkie (ostensibly), are Catholics, as was Greene; their beliefs are contrasted with Ida's strong but non-religious moral sensibility.

[8] Greene and Terence Rattigan wrote the screenplay for the 1948 film adaptation, produced and directed by John and Roy Boulting, with assistant director Gerald Mitchell.

A former Sabini gang member named Carl Ramon served as technical adviser, including teaching Attenborough how to behave as Pinkie.

Carol Marsh was cast as Rose after responding to a newspaper advertisement for a 16 or 17-year-old girl, "frail, innocent, naive, and tolerably but not excessively pretty."

"[13] Some reviewers, as well as author Greene, also objected to the final scene as sentimental and contrary to the original book's darker ending.

[citation needed] Over time, Brighton Rock has maintained a good reputation, with the Encyclopedia of Film Noir calling it "superb".