Directed by:
Peter MedakScreenplay:
Philip RidleyCinematography:
Alex ThomsonComposer:
Michael KamenCast:
Gary Kemp, Billie Whitelaw, Tom Bell, Martin Kemp, Susan Fleetwood, Steven Berkoff, John McEnery, Sadie Frost, Ben Brazier, Murray Melvin, Victor Spinetti (more)Plots(1)
The Krays were twin gangsters who ruled London's stylish East End club scene, staking out their territory by committing the most violent crimes imaginable, preferring to perform the most torturous acts themselves. The film stars Gary Kemp and Martin Kemp, founding members of the pop group Spandau Ballet, as Ronald and Reginald Kray. The film opens as their mother Violet Kray (Billie Whitelaw) recalls a dream in which she is a swan from which two beautiful babies have hatched. She can't tell if the swans are angels or demons, but the film soon answers that question for her. Brought up in London's East End in the 1930s, Ronald and Reginald Kray are raised in the resentful world of Violet, who is hateful of her lot in life and bitter at the control men have in running the world ('Housework is a lethal business,' she says). The twins react to each other almost telepathically and they take out their anger by clogging the nose of their sleeping father (Alfred Lynch), pushing around fellow schoolboys, and even beating each other to pulp at a boxing match. When her mother chastises them for their fight in a fairground boxing ring ('You fight them up, but you don't fight each other'), the twins veer into the London underworld. In their self-contained world of Us-Against-Them, the Krays rapidly rise to the height of power, first taking over the territory of a petty mobster by violent means and then putting together an underworld empire of posh clubs, cars, and fancy suits. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Gary Kemp
UK
Best movies:
The Bodyguard (1992)
Magic Hunter (1994)
Inspector Lewis (2006) (series)
Billie Whitelaw
UK
Best movies:
The Omen (1976)
The Water Babies (1978)
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Tom Bell
UK
Best movies:
Prime Suspect (1991) (TV movie)
Prime Suspect: The Final Act (2006) (TV movie)
Prime Suspect 3 (1993) (TV movie)
Martin Kemp
UK
Best movies:
Agatha Christie's Marple (2004) (series)
Sugar Town (1999)
McDonald & Dodds (2020) (series)
Susan Fleetwood
UK
Best movies:
The Sacrifice (1986)
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Cadfael (1994) (series)
Steven Berkoff
UK
Best movies:
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Jonathan Creek (1997) (series)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
John McEnery
UK
Best movies:
Romeo and Juliet (1968)
Othello (1965)
Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1998) (TV movie)
Sadie Frost
UK
Best movies:
Dracula (1992)
Uprising (2001) (TV movie)
Magic Hunter (1994)
Ben Brazier
Best movies:
Let Him Have It (1991)
Layer Cake (2004)
Heidi (1993) (TV movie)
Murray Melvin
UK
Best movies:
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Jonathan Creek (1997) (series)
A Taste of Honey (1961)
Victor Spinetti
UK
Best movies:
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
The Taming of the Shrew (1967)
The Return of the Pink Panther (1975)
Vernon Dobtcheff
France
Best movies:
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
If Tomorrow Comes (1986) (series)
The Name of the Game (1968) (series)
Michael Elphick
UK
Best movies:
L'Homme éléphant (1980)
Much Ado About Nothing (1984) (TV movie)
O Lucky Man! (1973)
Michael Balfour
UK
Best movies:
Batman (1989)
Moulin Rouge (1952)
A Stitch in Time (1963)
Barbara Ferris
UK
Best movies:
Tom Thumb (1958)
Term of Trial (1962)
The Krays (1990)
Angus MacInnes
Canada
Best movies:
La Guerre des étoiles (1977)
Captain Phillips (2013)
Les Yeux grands fermés (1999)
Julia Migenes
USA
Best movies:
Georges Bizet: Carmen (1984)
Mack the Knife (1989)
The Krays (1990)
Charlotte Cornwell
UK
Best movies:
Care (2000) (TV movie)
Midsomer Murders (1997) (series)
White Hunter Black Heart (1990)
Avis Bunnage
UK
Best movies:
Gandhi (1982)
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)
The Wrong Box (1966)
Fred Wood
UK
Best movies:
La Guerre des étoiles (1977)
L'Homme éléphant (1980)
Gandhi (1982)