A tough, almost unremittingly bleak between-the-wars story of life amongst the poor in London, this film is about as far away from the perception of a typical Cary Grant movie as you can get. His character here, Ernie Mott, is a feckless, carefree, selfish itinerant who thinks nothing of returning home to his home patch for a necessary bed, cadge some money and break a couple of hearts, before returning to the open road. However, a couple of events change his outlook, namely the news that his mother, superbly played by Esther Moorhead, is terminally ill and his falling for the divorced wife of the local kingpin, who still harbours a jealously unhealthy interest in her. Grant's gradual humanising, tested as it is along the way by the easy lure of petty crime, forms the narrative arc of the movie, before we reach the downbeat conclusion fittingly in keeping with what has preceded it.
Shot in grainy black and white in well-rendered sets depicting the near-squalor of the Londoners' surroundings, Grant for once fails to look the handsome gent he was in almost every one of his "heyday" movies. Even when his mother buys him a suit, he still looks shabby and grubby. At the heart of the film are his relationships with the women in his life, firstly his mother with whom initially he can't get along until his secret knowledge of her ailment changes his feelings towards her, then the girl he picks up at the local funfair where she works, who falls for him despite her reservations about his lack of commitment as well as the lesser character of his old, reliable neighbourhood girl, who loves him hopelessly but feeds off the scraps he throws her even as he strings her along.
Written and directed by Clifford Odets, this is, as you'd expect a wordy, multi-faceted film with plenty of peripheral characters playing off Grant's lead showcasing the different aspects of his personality. By the end of the film, you're still not sure if you like his character, but there's no doubt he holds your attention throughout.
Grant is very good, cast against type, no doubt drawing on his childhood experiences to play his part. The support acting is very strong too. For me the story was just a bit too convoluted plus I'm not sure that Grant's character would just so easily go along with the brutish hold-up crime he's inveigled into of people he knows, but in the whole, I enjoyed this change of direction for the charming leading man, showing his darker side, which in truth, if the biographical details about him are correct, is probably closer to his real personality than he might care to admit.
Shot in grainy black and white in well-rendered sets depicting the near-squalor of the Londoners' surroundings, Grant for once fails to look the handsome gent he was in almost every one of his "heyday" movies. Even when his mother buys him a suit, he still looks shabby and grubby. At the heart of the film are his relationships with the women in his life, firstly his mother with whom initially he can't get along until his secret knowledge of her ailment changes his feelings towards her, then the girl he picks up at the local funfair where she works, who falls for him despite her reservations about his lack of commitment as well as the lesser character of his old, reliable neighbourhood girl, who loves him hopelessly but feeds off the scraps he throws her even as he strings her along.
Written and directed by Clifford Odets, this is, as you'd expect a wordy, multi-faceted film with plenty of peripheral characters playing off Grant's lead showcasing the different aspects of his personality. By the end of the film, you're still not sure if you like his character, but there's no doubt he holds your attention throughout.
Grant is very good, cast against type, no doubt drawing on his childhood experiences to play his part. The support acting is very strong too. For me the story was just a bit too convoluted plus I'm not sure that Grant's character would just so easily go along with the brutish hold-up crime he's inveigled into of people he knows, but in the whole, I enjoyed this change of direction for the charming leading man, showing his darker side, which in truth, if the biographical details about him are correct, is probably closer to his real personality than he might care to admit.