Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

clanciai It's all about a house and its tenants of very variable kinds, the last one moving in being a confused spiritualist somehow falling out of everything (Alastair Sim in an unforgettable character, later copied by Alec Guinness in "Ladykillers"), while the main character is Richard Attenborough as a young irresponsible luck-seeker without any luck, courting the daughter of the house while his former mistress won't leave him alone, which leads to the tragedy. The house becomes a web of intrigue and complications, the different destinies interlacing each other, leading to confusions and further tragedies - Alastair Sim is really the unluckiest of them all. A fabulous gallery of colorful actors, Stephen Murray and a young Hugh Griffith making a surprise entrance towards the end is just two of them, the idyll develops into a spectacular drama finally involving all London. It's a wonderful story with great warmth and empathy with its characters, almost like a documentary. Unfortunately I haven't read the novel, which should be even better. This is a must see for grass-root people, environmentalists, humanitarians and all defenders of the small people of narrow circumstances and humble conditions, making out the great majority of the ordinary harmless core of humanity.

lucyrfisher Made in 1948, about 1938. Well, fashions hadn't changed that much, and landlady Joyce Carey, with her wonderful lace collars, is still living in the basement in 1918. For me, that's part of the appeal of films of this era - spotting the Victorian furniture and decor. Look at the Jossers' elaborate overmantel - and what would those etchings be worth now? At the time, all this Victoriana was a marker for people who couldn't afford anything new, and lived with the furniture provided. Back to the plot - it helps to understand Norman Collins's books. They are all like this: the story of a large cast of characters without an obvious hero or heroine. I have a confession to make: I like Richard Attenborough. He was good at playing criminals, spivs and wide boys. We know he's really middle class, we know he's now titled - but is that a reason to call him "bland", or address him as "Dickie boy"? What's that all about? Myrna (Eleanor Summerfield) went on to a career on the small screen. I agree with other reviewers about the odd way the film ends. The palaver about the petition goes on for too long. I suppose Collins wanted to send up earnest agitators, as well as silly spiritualists. The spiritualists come over as more sympathetic.

bagg10ns I admit I was confused as I watched this film, was it a crime story, a black comedy, a political statement? But as the film went on, I realized it is so much more than that. It is about the people who live on Dulcimer Street on the brink of WWII. It is about a misguided, stupid, teenage boy, who loves his mother, a young girl about to become a woman, a man at the end of a dead end career who always thinks of others and has inner happiness. A rogue con man, a hungry middle age woman, an aging agitator, a policeman trapped by his superiors. All the different blends of true people of England, who come together against all odds to fight a battle already one. This is a film that captures the true spirit of being English. And that is what this film is about.

dsewizzrd-1 Confused postwar drama-come-comedy about an idiotic young man who gets involved in car theft and murder.Richard Attenborough plays a complete piker as the young man in a way that becomes really grating. Alastair Sim plays a dodgy geezer playing up to the landlady, in his usual creepy way – but funny and appealing.The first part of the film is serious and then a last unnecessary half-hour is filled with a comic petition to reprieve the young man from the gallows (?).The film seems to be quite well made but the plot seems to look like it was made up of two different stories.