London Belongs to Me [Dulcimer Street] **** (1948, Richard Attenborough, Alastair Sim, Fay Compton, Stephen Murray) – Classic Movie Review 8642

Director Sidney Gilliat’s well-made, finely acted 1948 drama London Belongs To Me [Dulcimer Street] is based on the novel by Norman Collins, and stars Alastair Sim, Stephen Murray, Richard Attenborough and Fay Compton.

In this strong yarn, residents of an immediately pre-war South London rooming house must gather round to help out Percy Boon (Attenborough), a well meaning car mechanic garage-working spiv living with his mother (Gladys Henson), who gets mixed up with gangsters and is accused of car theft and murdering a girl.

The best thing about London Belongs To Me is the firework display of ensemble acting from the British stalwarts, developing rounded, believable characters with the help of admirable, tangy dialogue. Sim is his usual delightful self playing a phoney spiritualist, Mr Squales.

Based on Norman Collins’s bestseller, which was made into a British TV serial in 1977, the screenplay by Sidney Gilliat and J B Williams somehow mixes noir thriller, domestic drama and screwball comedy into an entirely British brew, both rich and satisfying. Each and every character actor gives a winning performance.

Also in the cast are Wylie Watson, Susan Shaw, Gladys Henson, Andrew Crawford, Hugh Griffith, Eleanor Summerfield, Ivy St Helier, Joyce Carey, Maurice Denham, Ivor Barnard, Cecil Trouncer, Arthur Howard, John Salew, Cyril Chamberlain, Aubrey Dexter, Jack McNaughton, Henry Hewitt, Fabia Drake, Sydney Tafler, Arthur Lowe, Ewen Solon, J H Roberts, Reg Thomason, Paula Young, John Gregson, Howard Douglas, Grace Allardyce, Russell Waters, Edward Evans, George Cross, Kenneth Downey, Basil Cunard, Wensley Pithey, Manville Tarrant, and Henry Edwards.

London Belongs To Me [Dulcimer Street] is directed by Sidney Gilliat, runs 112 minutes, is made by Independent Producers and Individual Pictures, is released by General Film Distributors (GFD) (1948) (UK) and Universal Pictures (1948) (US), is written by Sidney Gilliat and J B Williams, based on the novel by Norman Collins, is shot in black and white by Wilkie Cooper, is produced by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, and is scored by Benjamin Frankel, with Art Direction by Roy Oxley.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8642

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