Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Alex da Silva John McCallum (Tommy) escapes from Dartmoor prison and seeks out his ex-girlfriend Googie Withers (Rose) for food and clothing to help him on his way. Googie is now married to Edward Chapman (George) and lives with his 2 daughters and a son of their own. I think? The son seems a bit old but I think that's the relationship as he refers to Googie as 'mum'. We get involved in their claustrophobic life in their community where everyone seems to know each other. It's the East End of London and everyone is 'salt of the earth'. You get spivs, gangsters, family life and detective Jack Warner (Fothergill) on the trail of McCallum. Googie and McCallum do get together in real life but things are different in this film.The main plot follows the escaped convict storyline but this film is also about family life with characters having their own agendas. Which room is the best room in the house to hide an escaped criminal? You won't believe where Googie directs her ex not only to hideout but also to have a kip! We see McCallum's true feelings towards Googie unravel in the later stages of the film and there is quite an intense final scene as he makes a break for it. I watched the film on a Sunday. And it was raining.

FilmAlicia Stunning film reminiscent of "Brief Encounter." Rain-drenched, with a brilliant panoply of well-observed characters drawn from working class London life, "It Always Rains on Sunday," tells the story of a woman whose marriage to a man she respects but doesn't love is severely tested when an escaped convict, and former lover, asks her to hide him from the police. Loved the noirish use of flashbacks, and the restless movement of the camera from scene to scene and character to character among a cross section of the London lower classes, including petty criminals, shopkeepers, Jewish mobsters and jazz musicians, each in some way interconnected.What Film Noir does best, to me, is to portray the struggles and sufferings of ordinary people with as much dignity and compassion as those of the famous and important. "It Always Rains on Sunday" portrays the heroine's dilemma with enormous feeling, as she glimpses her life as it might have been. Googie Withers and John McCallum are excellent as the former lovers reunited for an all too brief time. The two actors married in real life, a much more felicitous ending than that of the lovers in the story. Not to be missed.

punishmentpark 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.

ianlouisiana 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.