Love on the Dole (film)

Last updated

Love on the Dole
Love on the Dole.jpeg
DVD cover
Directed by John Baxter
Written by Walter Greenwood (novel and adaptation)
Ronald Gow (play)
Barbara K. Emary
Rollo Gamble
Produced byJohn Baxter
Starring Deborah Kerr
Clifford Evans
Cinematography James Wilson
Edited by Michael C. Chorlton
Music by Richard Addinsell
Orchestrated, Roy Douglas
Direction, Muir Mathieson
Production
company
Distributed byAnglo-American Film Corporation (UK)
United Artists (USA)
Release dates
  • 28 June 1941 (1941-06-28)(UK)
  • 12 October 1945 (1945-10-12)(US)
Running time
94 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Love on the Dole is a 1941 British drama film starring Deborah Kerr and Clifford Evans. It was adapted from the novel of the same name by Walter Greenwood. [1] It was the first English-made feature film to show English police wielding batons against a crowd. [2]

Contents

Plot

It is 1930, at the height of the Great Depression. The Hardcastle family live in Hankey Park, part of Salford. Mr Hardcastle is a coalminer; his son, Harry, is an apprentice at a local engineering firm and Sally, his daughter, works at a cotton mill.

Mr Hardcastle's mine is put on a three-day week.

Harry wins £22 on his winning thruppence treble bet. Bookmaker Sam Grundy pays up without any trouble. At his father's suggestion, he takes his girlfriend Helen to the seaside resort of Blackpool on a holiday.

Harry becomes unemployed when his apprenticeship ends. The family’s plight is made worse by reductions in means tested unemployment benefits (the dole), whilst Helen's unexpected pregnancy causes further tensions.

Sally is courted by factory worker and Labour Party activist Larry Meath but their marriage plans are put in doubt when Larry loses his job. Larry is fatally injured when he tries to restore calm in a clash with the police during an unemployment march. Sally, reluctantly at first, becomes Grundy's mistress to help keep her unemployed family.

Cast

Critical reception

Although the book was successful, a proposed film version was rejected by the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) in 1936 as it was a "very sordid story in very sordid surroundings". [3] However, in 1940 the BBFC approved a similar proposal, with the film finally released in June 1941. [4]

In a contemporary review, The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote, "Here is a film that ranks with the best we have ever produced. The direction is excellent, the photography admirable, and the casting particularly good." [5]

Related Research Articles

<i>Love on the Dole</i> 1933 novel by Walter Greenwood

Love on the Dole is a novel by Walter Greenwood, about working-class poverty in 1930s Northern England. It has been made into both a play and a film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phyllis Calvert</span> British film actress (1915–2002)

Phyllis Hannah Murray-Hill, known professionally as Phyllis Calvert, was an English film, stage and television actress. She was one of the leading stars of the Gainsborough melodramas of the 1940s such as The Man in Grey (1943) and was one of the most popular movie stars in Britain in the 1940s. She continued her acting career for another 50 years.

<i>They Made Me a Fugitive</i> 1947 British film by Alberto Cavalcanti

They Made Me a Fugitive is a 1947 British black-and-white film noir directed by Alberto Cavalcanti and starring Sally Gray and Trevor Howard. It was written by Noel Langley, based on the 1941 Jackson Budd novel A Convict Has Escaped. Cinematography was by Otto Heller.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clifford Evans (actor)</span> Welsh actor (1912–1985)

Clifford George Evans was a Welsh actor.

<i>Carry On Nurse</i> 1959 British comedy film by Gerald Thomas

Carry On Nurse is a 1959 British comedy film, the second in the series of 31 Carry On films (1958–1992). Of the regular team, it featured Joan Sims, Kenneth Williams, Kenneth Connor and Charles Hawtrey, with Hattie Jacques and Leslie Phillips. The film was written by Norman Hudis based on the play Ring for Catty by Patrick Cargill and Jack Beale. It was the top-grossing film of 1959 in the United Kingdom and, with an audience of 10.4 million, had the highest cinema viewing of any of the "Carry On" films. Perhaps surprisingly, it was also highly successful in the United States, where it was reported that it played at some cinemas for three years. The film was followed by Carry On Teacher 1959.

<i>The Proud Valley</i> 1940 film by Pen Tennyson

The Proud Valley is a 1940 Ealing Studios film starring Paul Robeson. Filmed in the South Wales coalfield, the principal Welsh coal mining area, the film is about a seaman who joins a mining community. It includes their passion for singing as well as the dangers and precariousness of working in a mine.

<i>Carry On Cowboy</i> 1965 British comedy film by Gerald Thomas

Carry On Cowboy is a 1965 British comedy Western film, the eleventh in the series of 31 Carry On films (1958–1992). It was the first film to feature series regulars Peter Butterworth and Bernard Bresslaw. Series regulars Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Charles Hawtrey and Joan Sims all feature, and Angela Douglas makes the first of her four appearances in the series. Kenneth Williams, usually highly critical of all the Carry on films he appeared in, called the film "a success on every level" in his diary, taking pride in its humour and pathos. The film was followed by Carry On Screaming! (1966).

<i>Carry On Doctor</i> 1967 British comedy film by Gerald Thomas

Carry On Doctor is a 1967 British comedy film, the 15th in the series of 31 Carry On films (1958–1992). It is the second in the series to have a medical theme. Frankie Howerd makes the first of his two appearances in the film series and stars alongside regulars Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Peter Butterworth, and Bernard Bresslaw. Hattie Jacques returns for the first time since Carry On Cabby four years earlier, while Barbara Windsor returns after her debut in Carry On Spying three years earlier. Carry On Doctor marks Anita Harris's second and final appearance in the series. The film was followed by Carry On Up the Khyber in 1968.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wylie Watson</span> Scottish actor (1889–1966)

Wylie Watson was a Scottish actor. Among his best-known roles were those of "Mr Memory", an amazing man who commits "50 new facts to his memory every day" in Alfred Hitchcock's film The 39 Steps (1935), and wily storekeeper Joseph Macroon in the Ealing comedy Whisky Galore! (1949). He emigrated to Australia in 1952, and made his final film appearance there in The Sundowners (1960).

<i>The Railway Children</i> (1970 film) 1970 film by Lionel Jeffries

The Railway Children is a 1970 British family drama film based on the 1906 novel of the same name by E. Nesbit. The film was directed by Lionel Jeffries and stars Dinah Sheridan, Jenny Agutter, Sally Thomsett, Gary Warren and Bernard Cribbins in leading roles. The film was released to cinemas in the United Kingdom on 21 December 1970.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jameson Thomas</span> English actor (1888–1939)

Jameson Thomas was an English film actor. He appeared in more than 80 films between 1923 and 1939.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Calthrop</span> English actor (1888–1940)

Donald Esme Clayton Calthrop was an English stage and film actor.

<i>Cottage to Let</i> 1941 British film by Anthony Asquith

Cottage to Let is a 1941 British spy thriller film directed by Anthony Asquith starring Leslie Banks, Alastair Sim and John Mills. Filmed during the Second World War and set in Scotland during the war, its plot concerns Nazi spies trying to kidnap an inventor.

<i>Fanny by Gaslight</i> (film) 1944 British film starring James Mason

Fanny by Gaslight is a 1944 British drama film, directed by Anthony Asquith and produced by Gainsborough Pictures, set in the 1870s and adapted from a 1940 novel by Michael Sadleir.

<i>The Pickwick Papers</i> (1952 film) 1952 British film

The Pickwick Papers is a 1952 British historical comedy drama film written and directed by Noel Langley and starring James Hayter, James Donald, Nigel Patrick and Joyce Grenfell. It is based on the Charles Dickens’s 1837 novel of the same name. It was made by Renown Pictures who had successfully released another Dickens adaptation Scrooge the previous year.

<i>Look Up and Laugh</i> 1935 film

Look Up and Laugh is a 1935 British comedy film directed by Basil Dean and starring Gracie Fields, Alfred Drayton and Douglas Wakefield. The film is notable for featuring an appearance by Vivien Leigh in an early supporting role.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wensley Pithey</span> South African actor (1914–1993)

Wensley Ivan William Frederick Pithey was a South African character actor who had a long stage and film career in Britain.

<i>Just My Luck</i> (1957 film) 1957 British film by John Paddy Carstairs

Just My Luck is a 1957 British sports comedy film directed by John Paddy Carstairs and starring Norman Wisdom, Margaret Rutherford, Jill Dixon and Leslie Phillips.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Carney</span> British actor (1887–1947)

George Carney was a British comedian and film actor.

Ben Field (1876–1939) was a British actor.

References

  1. "British Film Institute: Love on the Dole (1941)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 4 August 2017.
  2. Emsley, Clive (2005). Hard Men: The English and Violence since 1750. London: Hambledon. p. 141. ISBN   1852855029.
  3. Thane, Pat (2018). Divided Kingdom: A History of Britain, 1900 to the Present. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. p. 124. ISBN   9781107040915.
  4. Love on the Dole at the BFI 's Screenonline
  5. "Monthly Film Bulletin review". www.screenonline.org.uk.