Lack of good storyline.

A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

This fairly realistic and exciting post-war British picture is a model example of its kind. It's well-written, well-directed, (by Robert Hamer), and very well acted by a cast of British stalwarts and in many ways it prefigures the kitchen-sink movies of the late fifties and early sixties. John McCallum is the escaped convict who hides out in the home of former girlfriend Googie Withers who is now married to older Edward Chapman and is stepmother to his problematic family, (in real-life McCallum and Withers were married for 62 years).If its mix of location work and studio sets lets it down slightly it's nevertheless a very good picture of a tightly-knit East End community and was remarkably grown-up for its period. It also manages to keep several related plots on the boil at the same time without feeling over-egged. Maybe not quite the classic some people claim of it but outstanding all the same.

A beautiful film; on the DVD I have is an introduction in which I learned that it was filmed in post-war Bethnal Green, an area in East End, London, which since then has radically changed. So, here one can still see beautiful pictures of old London streets, markets, shops and such, in which ordinary people with ordinary people live their lives. The photography is sublime and the acting is very well done.The plot is carefully built around the escaped criminal Tommy, his former lover Rose and her 'new' family; a father, two rebellious stepdaughters and an adolescent son. Apart from them there is room for the stories of a few inhabitants of Bethnal Green (some of whom are directly connected to the family). But unfortunately, things don't come brilliantly together in the end. Some parts of the story are all too easily finished up, and instead there is an atmospheric, tense pursuit. Not something to cry over, but the initial build-up had more promise to it.For me it was a terribly fun ride - although I'll have to watch it again to catch all the dialogues of it (no subs on my DVD, alas).A big 7 out of 10, this first time around.

Googie Withers was England's equivalent of Joan Blondell (although better-looking and more talented): both actresses played similar types, alternating their performances between dramas and comedies. In 'It Always Rains on Sunday', Withers gives possibly the best performance of her career. She's skilfully abetted by a universally excellent cast.This is a taut thriller, very much in the Hitchcock vein, based on a novel by Arthur La Bern. (His novel 'Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square', set in Covent Garden in this same time period, was updated by Hitchcock as the basis for 'Frenzy'.) The lives (and a death) of several people in London's East End are deftly interwoven. A real strength of this drama is its perfect encapsulation of a distinctive time and place in one London neighbourhood: Bethnal Green and its environs.The dialogue is note-perfect, although Americans will want subtitles for such terms as "have a butcher's" (take a look), "sweet Fannie Adams" (not a bloody thing), "Bob's your uncle" (you're all set), "shopped" (informed upon), "clothes" (blankets) and "the Anderson" (a mass-produced prefabricated outdoor shelter during the Blitz, employed as garden sheds after the war). I was even impressed that the scriptwriters caught the East Enders' subtle distinction between "up west" (the West End) and "out west" (the Home Provinces). That Anderson shelter, Mrs Spry's doss-house, the ration book, the police call-box with Albertus panels (from the pre-999 era of Whitehall 1212), the wide boys and the spivs (notably the splendid John Slater) all gave me a twinge of nostalgia.SLIGHT SPOILER. The climactic chase is thrilling and well done, except for two shots using miniatures that are laughably obvious. American viewers might wonder why the plainclothesmen don't just simply shoot the fugitive. (When this film was made, British police never carried firearms except in very unusual circumstances.) I did notice a few minor errors, including some tech errors. Only two years after V-E Day, with rationing still in place, it's very unlikely that so many working-class Englishwomen would have such elaborate make-up. (Get a line on those carefully pencilled eyebrows!) Spivs or no spivs: how did so many of these characters get such elaborate and expensive leather gloves? And, drunk or not: would Vi (Susan Shaw) really go straight into bed without removing her make-up and her expensive frock? 'It Always Rains on Sunday' brilliantly preserves life in Bethnal Green in the late years of George VI's reign ... and also tells a cracking good suspense yarn. My rating for this one: despite a few flaws, a perfect 10 out of 10.

This is one of those "slice of cockney life" films so beloved of post war British filmmakers.It belongs in a time capsule along with "Picturegoer","Illustrated","Lilliput" and "Health and efficiency". It's so wonderfully silly and full of British thesps struggling bravely with their dipthongs and glottal stops. I don't think anybody actually says"Blimey guv'nor,yore a toff and no mistyke" but that was probably due to an oversight.However,there is some slight connection with real life in the 1940s that overrides these criticisms and makes it quite compelling in its absurd way.60 years ago London comprised of dozens of autonomous communities like the one shown in this film.They were separated by clearly defined social and physical boundaries.If a boy from Bethnal Green was walking out with a girl from Poplar,say,she would have been viewed with some suspicion by his friends and family. Together with Stepney,Bethnal Green,Poplar and Bow have merged into The Borough of Tower Hamlets.Half a century of Town Planning and Social Engineering has seen the community become ghettoised and divided along racial and religious lines that not even the most pessimistic East Ender could have foreseen.So in these black and white images we have a portrait of a society that - all unknowing - was on its way to extinction. The major problem I have with "It always rains on Sunday" is the casting of Miss G.Withers and Mr J.Macallum in the lead roles.I'm not sure what they're speaking but it certainly isn't cockney.Edith Evans as Lady Bracknell comes to mind. Jack Warner,Sidney Tafler and the great Meier Tzelnicker walk away with the film,masters all of what is now called "Estuary English". When you look at this and "The Blue Lamp" you are seeing the first stirrings of British Noir Cinema if I may use so grand a term.As such,both films have been hugely influential on subsequent generations of artists and countless TV soaps. Every film of course is a Time Machine,and here,preserved,is a Britain on the verge of the Welfare State,populated by people many of whom were still suffering from the deprivations of the Second World War,a male - dominated society where a considerable amount of the community had outside lavatories and no bathrooms,everybody smoked and the local copper could give you a clip round the ear without being thought a fascist brute because everybody knew what real fascists were. If you remember this era with some affection - however grudging - the chances are you already know "It always rains on Sunday". If it seems like a recounting of some Dark Age then you might find as L.P. Hartley said,that the past is a foreign country,and whilst it might be worth your while to take your passport and visit,you wouldn't want to live there.