IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY
(director/writer: Robert Hamer; screenwriters: Angus MacPhail, Henry Cornelius, based on the novel by Arthur La Bern; cinematographer: Douglas Slocombe; editor: Michael Truman; cast: John McCallum (Tommy Swann), Googie Withers (Rose Sandigate), Susan Shaw (Vi Sandigate), Jack Warner (Det. Sgt. Fothergill), Edward Chapman (George Sandigate), Patricia Plunkett (Doris Sandigate), Alfie Bass (Dicey), Jimmy Hanley (Whitey), John Slater (Lou), Sydney Tafler (Morry Hyams), Betty Ann Davies (Sadie), David Lines (Alfie Sandigate), Meier Tzeiniker (Solly); Runtime: 92; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Michael Balcon; Eagle Lion/Ealing Studios; 1947 B/W-UK-in English, Yiddish)
“Terrific working-class crime film noir.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
The underappreciated great Brit filmmaker Robert Hamer (“Kind Hearts and Coronets”/”Dead of Night”) directs this terrific working-class crime film noir. It’s set in London’s East Side in the post-war 1940s. It’s based on the novel by Arthur La Bern, and is co-written by Hamer, Angus MacPhail, and Henry Cornelius.
During a breakout at Dartmoor Prison, Tommy Swann (John McCallum, Aussie actor), after serving 4 years for a robbery escapes. He returns to his former neighborhood and hides out at his former lover’s house in Bethnal Green, with the former barmaid Rose Sandigate (Googie Withers). She’s now unhappily married to a much older widower, a good provider but disinterested husband, George (Edward Chapman). She is raising his 3 unruly and naive children he had in a previous marriage – the teenage daughters Doris (Patricia Plunkett) and Vi (Susan Shaw), and the juvenile delinquent schoolboy Alfie (David Lines).
Rose’s reluctant to see the man she still loves, but eventually relents and he hides out in her basement. Through flashbacks we see they were a handsome couple who now look beaten down, as they wonder how things would have been if they married.
The manhunt for the escapees is led by Detective Sgt. Fothergill (Jack Warner).
Rosie’s cramped home is in London’s Jewish community, where we meet many colorful characters who interact with the family in sometimes not pleasing ways. Some of these characters are Yiddish speaking petty thieves and hustlers.
The film is thematically about the unfulfilled dreams and disappointments of the main characters, and how they survived the Blitz and now must not only survive the poor economy of the postwar but their despondency and suicidal feelings.
It takes place over one dreary rainy Sunday, on March 23rd, 1947.
The poetical realistic “Sunday” is an unofficial forerunner of the early 1960s kitchen sink dramas that took place in England–especially those with the same liberal political views held by the Brit’s greatest kitchen sink director Mike Leigh.
McCallum and Withers married after the film and lived happily in Australia.
When the film was released in the UK, it was a surprise box office hit (Number 2 at the b.o.) that was also acclaimed by the critics. In the States, it only became recognized as a great film when it played 10 years ago at film festivals.
It played at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. 
REVIEWED ON 5/8/2025 GRADE: A-
dennisschwartzreviews.com