Innocent Sinners *** (1958, Flora Robson, Catherine Lacey, David Kossoff, Barbara Mullen) – Classic Movie Review 13,148

Director Philip Leacock’s 1958 British black and white film Innocent Sinners stars Flora Robson, Catherine Lacey, David Kossoff, and Barbara Mullen. It is another pleasing little film about children from director Leacock, who made The Spanish Gardener and The Kidnappers.

It tells a pleasantly sentimental, amusing and moving tale with a little edge about a cockney girl called Lovejoy Mason (June Archer), neglected by her actress mum (Vanda Godsell), but looked after by Mr and Mrs Vincent (David Kossoff and Barbara Mullen).

Lovejoy is building a secret garden in a London bombed churchyard, with the help of two ruffian lads, Tip Malonem and Sparkey (Christopher Hey, Brian Hammond), and finds herself coming up against the law.

The three amateur actor kids are excellent and so are expert, seasoned professionals Robson, Lacey, Kossoff and Mullen, leading a cast of interesting adult actors.

Main star Flora Robson plays Olivia Chesney is too ill to leave her home in a square in post-war Chelsea, London, but waves out of her window to her neighbours. And Rank contract star Susan Beaumont (26 February 1936 – 25 February 2020) plays Liz. She joined Rank at 19 in 1955 and starred in several films for them in a brief film career between 1956 and 1959.

The screenplay by Rumer Godden and Neil Patterson is based on Rumer Godden’s 1955 novel An Episode of Sparrows.

That bomb site is in Thessaly Road, Battersea, London.

Olivia Chesney’s house is 37 Markham Square, Chelsea, London.

Lovejoy and George go for a walk in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London.

Thank goodness for the outside filming. Otherwise it is a J Arthur Rank studio film made at Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England. It was shot in August 1957.

Release date: March 25, 1958 (UK).

Barbara Mullen and Andrew Cruickshank famously went on to star together in TV’s Dr Finlay’s Casebook, playing their same kind of roles as doctor and housekeeper.

The cast are June Archer as Lovejoy Mason, Christopher Hey as Tip Malonem, Brian Hammond as Sparkey, Flora Robson as Olivia Chesney, David Kossoff as George Vincent, Barbara Mullen as Mrs Vincent, Catherine Lacey as Angela Chesney, Susan Beaumont as Liz, Lyndon Brook as Charles, Edward Chapman as Manley, John Rae as Mr Isbister, Vanda Godsell as Lovejoy’s mother Bertha Mason, Hilda Fenemore as Cassie, Pauline Delaney as Mrs Malone, Andrew Cruickshank as Dr Lynch-Cliffe, Cyril Chamberlain as Colonel Francis Baldock, Basil Dignam as Mr Dyson, William Squire as Father Lambert, Marianne Stone as Sparkey’s Mother, and Toke Townley as Bates.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,148

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