It Always Rains on Sunday

Last updated

It Always Rains on Sunday
Rainsonsunday.jpg
Original British quad poster
Directed by Robert Hamer
Screenplay by Angus MacPhail
Robert Hamer
Henry Cornelius
Based onIt Always Rains on Sunday
by Arthur La Bern
Produced by Michael Balcon
Starring Googie Withers
John McCallum
Jack Warner
Cinematography Douglas Slocombe
Edited by Michael Truman
Music by Georges Auric
Production
company
Distributed by GDF (UK)
Release date
  • 25 November 1947 (1947-11-25)(UK)
Running time
92 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£180,936 [1]
Box officeover £400,000 (UK) ($US $1.6 million) [2]

It Always Rains on Sunday is a 1947 British film adaptation of Arthur La Bern's novel of the same name, directed by Robert Hamer. The film has been compared with the poetic realism movement in the French cinema of a few years earlier by the British writers Robert Murphy [3] and Graham Fuller. [4]

Contents

Synopsis

The film concerns events taking place one Sunday (23 March 1947, according to the announcement blackboard at the local underground station) in Bethnal Green, a part of the East End of London that had suffered the effects of bombing and post-war deprivation. Rose Sandigate is a former barmaid married to a middle-aged man who has two teenage daughters from a previous marriage. She is now a housewife, but with her wounded heart and kindly husband is coping with the difficulties of post-war rationing and a drab environment. As Rose discovers from a newspaper report, her former lover, Tommy Swann, who has served four years of a seven-year sentence for robbery with violence, has escaped from Dartmoor prison and is on the run. A series of flashbacks indicate that Rose and Tommy were engaged when he got arrested, and he may well be the father of her young son. She is surprised by him, hiding in the family's air-raid shelter. He asks her to hide him until nightfall. After the rest of the family have gone out, she allows Tommy into the house and feeds him and hides him in the bedroom she shares with her husband, keeping the bedroom door locked.

She manages to keep his presence a secret from the family, but it is Sunday and the lunch must be cooked. The girls are admonished for their misdemeanours of the previous night, and the husband goes out to the pub as usual. Tommy needs money, and with only her housekeeping money, she gives him a jewelled ring he gave her, which she has kept hidden from her husband. Tommy is pleased, but although he fails to recognise it as the engagement ring he had given her, she says nothing. As the day progresses, the police net closes. A newspaper reporter acting on a tip unexpectedly calls at the house to ask about her previous relationship with the escaped convict and arrives just as Tommy is about to flee, and Tommy assaults him and rushes out of the house. Recovering, the reporter rushes out to tip off the police. A panic-stricken Rose tries to gas herself. The prisoner is tracked by the police to railway sidings and after a chase is arrested by the detective inspector (Jack Warner) who has been after him. As the film ends, Rose is in hospital recovering, being comforted by her husband, who then returns alone to their home under a clear sky.

Main cast

Reception and reputation

Box office

The film was one of the most popular movies at the British box office in 1948. [5] [6] According to Kinematograph Weekly the 'biggest winner' at the box office in 1948 Britain was The Best Years of Our Lives with Spring in Park Lane being the best British film and "runners up" being It Always Rains on Sunday, My Brother Jonathan, Road to Rio, Miranda, An Ideal Husband, Naked City, The Red Shoes, Green Dolphin Street, Forever Amber, Life with Father, The Weaker Sex, Oliver Twist, The Fallen Idol and The Winslow Boy. [7]

The film earned distributor's gross receipts of £229,834 in the UK of which £188,247 went to the producer. [1]

Critical

In the decades since its release, the reputation of It Always Rains on Sunday has grown from that of a neatly engrossing slice-of-life drama to a film often cited as one of the most overlooked achievements of late-1940s British cinema. Writing in Films in Review in 1987, William K. Everson described the film as "the definitive British noir", [8] while a series of screenings in New York in 2008 as part of a British Film Noir season elicited tremendous praise from American critics, many of whom were previously unacquainted with the film. Scott Cruddas of The Village Voice described it as "a masterpiece of dead ends and might-have-beens, highly inventive in its use of flashbacks and multiple overlapping narratives, and brilliantly acted by Withers and McCallum". [9] The New York Sun's S. James Snyder observed: "When things go from gray to pitch black in the film's final moments, building to a climax that links the anguish of a prison inmate with the daily routine of a working-class wife, (the film) delivers an existential wallop for the ages". [10] David Denby wrote in The New Yorker : "A fascinating noirish look at life in London's East End...the scenes between Withers and McCallum are stunningly erotic", while Stephen Garrett of Time Out summed the film up as: ""Absolutely exhilarating! A bleak thriller realised with utter vibrancy, Robert Hamer's savoury stew of London's lower class roils with an emotional brutality and precision that most films don’t dare attempt, let alone achieve." [11]

The film was given a theatrical re-release in the UK during 2012. Peter Bradshaw reviewing the film in The Guardian commented: "The film is in many ways a precursor to kitchen-sink movies like Saturday Night and Sunday Morning – and that huge, teeming market scene bears comparison with Carné's Les Enfants du Paradis ." [12]

Related Research Articles

<i>Dial M for Murder</i> 1954 film by Alfred Hitchcock

Dial M for Murder is a 1954 American crime thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, Anthony Dawson, and John Williams. Both the screenplay and the successful stage play on which it was based were written by English playwright Frederick Knott. The play premiered in 1952 on BBC Television, before being performed on stage in the same year in London's West End in June, and then New York's Broadway in October.

<i>Stage Fright</i> (1950 film) 1950 film by Alfred Hitchcock

Stage Fright is a 1950 British thriller film noir directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich, Michael Wilding and Richard Todd. The cast also features Alastair Sim, Sybil Thorndike, Kay Walsh, Hitchcock's daughter Pat Hitchcock in her film debut, and Joyce Grenfell in a vignette.

<i>Miranda</i> (1948 film) 1948 British film

Miranda is a 1948 black and white British comedy film, directed by Ken Annakin and written by Peter Blackmore, who also wrote the play of the same name from which the film was adapted. The film stars Glynis Johns, Googie Withers, Griffith Jones, Margaret Rutherford, John McCallum and David Tomlinson. Denis Waldock provided additional dialogue. Music for the film was played by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Muir Mathieson. The sound director was B. C. Sewell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Googie Withers</span> British actress and entertainer

Georgette Lizette "Googie" Withers, CBE, AO was an English entertainer. She was a dancer and actress, with a lengthy career spanning some nine decades in theatre, film, and television. She was a well-known actress and star of British films during and after the Second World War.

<i>Lord of Illusions</i> 1995 film

Lord of Illusions is a 1995 American neo-noir supernatural horror film written and directed by Clive Barker, based on his own short story The Last Illusion published in 1985 in the anthology Books of Blood Volume 6. The same story introduced Barker's occult detective Harry D'Amour, who later appeared in several prose stories and comic books. Lord of Illusions is D'Amour's first onscreen appearance, with the character portrayed by actor Scott Bakula. Other actors appearing in the film include Kevin J. O'Connor, Famke Janssen and Daniel von Bargen. The story features D'Amour, who has had several experiences with the supernatural, embarking on an investigation involving a stage illusionist named Swann and a cult led by a sorcerer named Nix.

<i>The Narrow Margin</i> 1952 film by Richard Fleischer

The Narrow Margin is a 1952 American film noir starring Charles McGraw and Marie Windsor. Directed by Richard Fleischer, the RKO picture was written by Earl Felton, based on an unpublished story written by Martin Goldsmith and Jack Leonard. The screenplay by Earl Felton was nominated for an Academy Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kat Slater</span> Fictional character from EastEnders

Kathleen "Kat" Mitchell is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Jessie Wallace. She was also played by Kate Peck in a flashback in 2001 and Sumar-Elise Sandford in a flashback in 2018. Kat is the second eldest Slater family sister and first appeared on 18 September 2000. Kat's usual dress is very short skirts and leopard-print tops, with much make-up and heavy fake tan. Her initial stint saw her involved in many storylines, most significantly in a plot twist that sees her supposedly sister Zoe Slater, revealed to be her daughter after she was raped by her uncle Harry Slater as a child. Kat and Zoe's relationship is tested several times, and a feud forms when they compete against each other for the affection of Anthony Trueman. Another key aspect to the character's storylines is her marriage to Alfie Moon, prior to which she became briefly engaged to Andy Hunter ; after Kat jilted Andy on their wedding day, he blackmailed her into sleeping with him in his revenge bid against Alfie and Kat. Kat was absent between November 2004 and May 2005 following Wallace's maternity leave, but returned early to tie in with Zoe’s exit storyline. Kat later left the soap on 25 December 2005.

<i>Cry of the City</i> 1948 film by Robert Siodmak

Cry of the City is a 1948 American film noir starring Victor Mature, Richard Conte, and Shelley Winters. Directed by Robert Siodmak, it is based on the novel by Henry Edward Helseth, The Chair for Martin Rome. The screenwriter Ben Hecht worked on the film's script, but is not credited. The film was partly shot on location in New York City.

Robert Hamer was a British film director and screenwriter best known for the 1949 black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets and the now acknowledged 1947 classic It Always Rains on Sunday.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John McCallum (actor)</span> Australian Actor

John Neil McCallum, was an Australian theatre and film actor, highly successful in the United Kingdom. He was also a television producer.

<i>The Long Memory</i> 1953 British film by Robert Hamer

The Long Memory is a black-and-white 1953 British crime film directed by Robert Hamer, starring John Mills, John McCallum and Elizabeth Sellars. The screenplay is by Hamer and Frank Harvey based on the 1951 novel of the same title by Howard Clewes.

<i>Where Danger Lives</i> 1950 film by John Farrow

Where Danger Lives is a 1950 American film noir thriller directed by John Farrow and starring Robert Mitchum, Faith Domergue and Claude Rains.

<i>Lady Godiva Rides Again</i> 1951 British film

Lady Godiva Rides Again is a 1951 British comedy film starring Pauline Stroud, George Cole and Bernadette O'Farrell, with British stars in supporting roles or making cameo appearances. It concerns a small-town English girl who wins a local beauty contest by appearing as Lady Godiva, then decides to pursue a higher profile in a national beauty pageant and as an actress.

<i>An Ideal Husband</i> (1947 film) 1947 British film

An Ideal Husband, also known as Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband, is a 1947 British comedy film adaptation of the 1895 play by Oscar Wilde. It was made by London Film Productions and distributed by British Lion Films (UK) and Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (USA). It was produced and directed by Alexander Korda from a screenplay by Lajos Bíró from Wilde's play. The music score was by Arthur Benjamin, the cinematography by Georges Périnal, the editing by Oswald Hafenrichter and the costume design by Cecil Beaton. This was Korda's last completed film as a director, although he continued producing films into the next decade.

<i>Farewell, My Lovely</i> (1975 film) 1975 film by Dick Richards

Farewell, My Lovely is a 1975 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Dick Richards and featuring Robert Mitchum as private detective Philip Marlowe. The picture is based on Raymond Chandler's novel Farewell, My Lovely (1940), which had previously been adapted for film as Murder, My Sweet in 1944. The supporting cast features Charlotte Rampling, John Ireland, Jack O'Halloran, Sylvia Miles, Harry Dean Stanton and hardcore crime novelist Jim Thompson, in his only acting role, as Charlotte Rampling's character's elderly husband Judge Grayle. Mitchum returned to the role of Marlowe three years later in the 1978 film The Big Sleep, making him the only actor to portray the character more than once in a feature film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sydney Tafler</span> British actor (1916-1979)

Sydney Tafler was an English actor who after having started his career on stage, was best remembered for numerous appearances in films and television from the 1940s to the 1970s.

<i>Pink String and Sealing Wax</i> 1945 film by Robert Hamer

Pink String and Sealing Wax is a 1945 British drama film directed by Robert Hamer and starring Mervyn Johns. It is based on a play with the same name by Roland Pertwee. It was the first feature film Robert Hamer directed on his own.

<i>Derby Day</i> (1952 film) 1952 British film by Herbert Wilcox

Derby Day is a 1952 British drama film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding, Googie Withers, John McCallum, Peter Graves, Suzanne Cloutier and Gordon Harker. An ensemble piece, it portrays several characters on their way to the Derby Day races at Epsom Downs Racecourse. It was an attempt to revive the success that Neagle and Wilding had previously enjoyed on screen together. To promote the film, Wilcox arranged for Neagle to launch the film at the 1952 Epsom Derby.

<i>The Loves of Joanna Godden</i> 1947 British film

The Loves of Joanna Godden is a 1947 British historical drama film directed by Charles Frend and produced by Michael Balcon. The screenplay was written by H. E. Bates and Angus MacPhail from the novel Joanna Godden (1921) by Sheila Kaye-Smith.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patricia Plunkett</span> English actress (1926–1974)

Patricia Ruth Plunkett was an English actress, born to an Australian WWI soldier, Captain Gunning Francis Plunkett, and Alice Park.

References

  1. 1 2 Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 355. Gross is distributor's gross receipts.
  2. Variety May 1948 p 20
  3. Robert Murphy ""Hamer, Robert James (1911–1963), film director, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004–13 Archived 11 April 2013 at archive.today
  4. Graham Fuller "It Always Rains on Sunday", theartsdesk.co, 26 October 2012
  5. "THE STARRY WAY". The Courier-Mail . Brisbane: National Library of Australia. 8 January 1949. p. 2. Retrieved 11 July 2012.
  6. Thumim, Janet. "The popular cash and culture in the postwar British cinema industry". Screen. Vol. 32, no. 3. p. 258.
  7. Lant, Antonia (1991). Blackout : reinventing women for wartime British cinema. Princeton University Press. p. 232.
  8. "British Film Noir" Archived 17 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine Everson, William K. Films in Review, May 1987. Retrieved 10 October 2010
  9. "Dead Ends and Might-Have-Beens" Cruddas, Scott. Village Voice, 4 March 2008. Retrieved 10 October 2010
  10. "Happiness Is a Stranger in the Bomb Shelter" Snyder, S. James. New York Sun, 6 March 2008. Retrieved 10 October 2010
  11. "Brit Noir" Archived 2 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine Film Forum. Retrieved 10 October 2010
  12. Peter Bradshaw "It Always Rains on Sunday – review", The Guardian, 24 October 2012