The First Kitchen Sink Drama - Room At The Top (1959)
The fact its stars hailed from overseas (Simone Signoret was French while Laurence Harvey hailed from Lithuania via South Africa) wasn’t the only un-British thing about Jack Clayton’s seminal movie; the picture that really kick-started the British New Wave. For besides the “savage story of lust and ambition” tagline, its keenness to address working class mores meant Room stood out from other British films like an elephant in an emu ID parade. Spawning two sequels and an animated parody (Zoom At The Top) the film’s greatest legacy was to show British director that the kitchen sink was a legitimate location for high drama.
The First Use Of The Word ‘Homosexual’ On Film - Victim (1961)
There was outcry across Middle American when James Stewart mouthed “semen” in 1959’s Anatomy Of A Murder. So one imagines there were coronaries all over the home counties when that nice Dirk Bogarde uttered the word “homosexual” for the first time in the history of celluloid. Leant added poignancy by Bogarde’s bisexuality, the word’s use isn’t the only remarkable thing about Basil Dearden’s impossibly brave social drama. But by giving a now everyday term its first outing in polite society, Victim assured its place in film history. And exactly 10 years later, John Schlesinger gave us the first man-on-man snog in Sunday Bloody Sunday.
The First Ever Big Screen '‘Fuck!’ - I’ll Never Forget What’sisname (1967)
Mention Michael Winner and its not unusual for the response to include a barrage of four-letter works. How apt then that Winner was responsible for the first ever use of the ‘foulest of fouls’. Already stunned by its salty depiction of oral sex, INW’s audience were shocked even further when Marianne Faithfull bellowed, “Get out of here, you fucking bastard!” For other sweary firsts, check out 1966’s Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (“Bugger!”), 1940’s Convoy (“Fanny!”), 1938’s Pygmalion (“Bloody!”), 1948’s The Guinea Pig (“Arse!”) and 1950’s The Blue Lamp (“Bastard!).