writers_reign This doesn't quite work on any level with an eclectic cast shoehorned together and giving the impression that all they want to do is get it over with, pick up their wedge and go home. The only thing that could induce me to sit through a schmaltz fest like this was Celia Johnson in the lead role. Clearly Reed had seen her as Ethel Gibbon in Coward's superb This Happy Breed and noted how well she was able to bring off a cockney despite being one of nature's aristocrats. What Reed overlooked, of course, was that he is no David Lean and Mankowitz is no Coward so that poor Miss Johnson is left floundering. What Diana Dors is doing in the same film as Celia Johnson we'll never know. Even badly miscast Celia Johnson is value for money but that's the only thing this has going for it.

ivyfield I love old movies and looked forward to seeing this on Film4 today. It's just finished and I have to say it ranks very high in the 'Why did they bother' stakes. Very bad casting, some appalling acting with the lead character - a little boy, raised in the tough East End of London who talks with more marbles in his mouth than he has teeth! I'ts in colour though really should have been b&w to give it more atmosphere but frankly, it would have taken a hell of a lot more to save this old crock. Only watch it if you're wrapped head to foot in a plaster cast and have nothing else to watch. Much worse than I expected, given the great films turned by the British studios of that era. To cheer me up I'm now going to watch Sunset Boulevard for the umpteenth time. Disappointed, Steve Weaver, UK.

mysticmike123456 What a bunch of moaners. It would seem obvious to me that the mother and her son were middle class down on their luck.( note - disappeared dad) Hundreds of thousands of people found their lives turned upside down during and just after the war. Mine was. Yes, perhaps it would have been better in black and white, but can't you just suspend critical faculty just enough to enjoy the story. Nobody noticed Barbara Windsor, even uglier then than she is now. Gerald Kersh is a blast from the past. His novel 'Fowlers End' is a marvellous depiction of life amongst 'ordinary' folk between the wars.I am 70, but I cried like a babby,watching this last week

emuir-1 A nostalgic film which works on many levels. It is as gentle a look at the innocent magic of childhood as Stephen Spielberg's E.T. It is also a look at the indomitable spirit of London's east enders only 10 years after the end of WWII. Another level is a look back at the 50's, which seem chaste by comparison with today. As one who grew up in the 50's, I can remember that it was exactly like that. Wrestling matches were gritty affairs which took place on Friday night's at the local drill hall, and attracted all the small town gamblers, crooks, bookmakers and "fast Eddies" in town.The film captures the cockney humor and sharp wit of the polyglot community practically living on top of each other. People lived close to the small shops and businesses. Everyone knew everyone else and saw them all day. Their lives were lived openly, with the neighbors sharing in each others joys, sorrows, gossip, romances, and whatever. The most shining performance is that of the wonderful character actor, David Kossof, as the elderly tailor who strives to keep the child's dream alive.