"Waterloo Road" has certain similarities with "It Always Rains on Sunday" from two years later. Both films are set in working-class districts of London, foreshadowing the later "kitchen sink" school of social-realist film-making. Both involve similar love-triangles involving a salt-of-the-earth husband, an attractive younger wife and the wife's glamorous but dishonest lover (or suspected lover). Both feature the activities of "spivs" (British slang for black marketeers). Railways play an important part in both films. (Another similarity is that both were made by companies best known for making films of a very different type, "Waterloo Road" by Gainsborough Pictures, best known for historical melodramas, and the later film by Ealing Studios, best known for comedies).
The most obvious difference between the two films is that "It Always Rains on Sunday" was made two years after the war ended, and shows the East End returning to normal after the return of peace. Because the action all takes place on a single Sunday, most of the characters are shown at their leisure rather than at work. "Waterloo Road" was made while the war was still being fought, and, like many wartime films, was made with an obvious propaganda purpose in mind. (Its short running time, less than an hour and a quarter, suggests that this may have been a B-movie on a double bill). In this case the aim was to contrast the courage and decency of the British fighting man with the decadence and corruption of the spivs.
Jim Colter, a soldier in the British army, receives a letter from his sister informing him that his wife Tillie is having an affair with Ted Purvis, an amusement arcade proprietor. (Tillie is certainly friendly with him, although her sister-in-law might have jumped to unwarranted conclusions in assuming that their relationship is a sexual one. In the forties film-makers could not be too explicit about such matters). Although Purvis is a young man of military age, he has managed to avoid serving in the Forces by bribing a corrupt doctor to provide him with a false medical certificate. Purvis' black market activities have brought him considerable wealth, and he also has a reputation as a womaniser. Colter therefore goes AWOL in order to return home, confront Purvis and try and save his marriage.
"It Always Rains on Sunday" is, in my view, one of the neglected classics of the British cinema. It has a genuinely tragic heroine in Rose, whose tragedy is that the man she loves is a violent rogue, who does not love her but makes use of her when it is in his interests, and that she cannot love her husband who is a decent, kindly man and treats her well. "Waterloo Road" is not in the same class- it is lighter in tone with a happy ending, and no moral complexities; good is good, bad is bad, and good will always win in the end. Nevertheless, it still remains watchable today, for two reasons.
Firstly, it features two of the best-known stars of the British cinema, John Mills as Colter and Stewart Granger as Purvis. There is a deliberate contrast drawn between the characters, Colter being played as solid and decent, Purvis as flashy, superficial and lacking in fibre. When the two have a fight, the audience will all be on Colter's side, even though the fight scenes are not, by modern standards, very convincing. (As another reviewer has pointed out, it is difficult to imagine the relatively diminutive Mills getting the better of the tall, powerfully-built Granger in a fight). There is also a good cameo performance from Alastair Sim as Dr Montgomery, the local GP who disapproves of Purvis' morals and who, at the end of the film, has to give him some unwelcome news. The second reason why the film remains watchable is that it contains some well-observed social observations of a working-class community in wartime. As in "It Always Rains on Sunday" we see a lot of the leisure activities of the period- not just Purvis' amusement arcade, but also a café, a dance hall and a pub. This is a wartime period piece which still has something to offer the modern viewer. 6/10
The most obvious difference between the two films is that "It Always Rains on Sunday" was made two years after the war ended, and shows the East End returning to normal after the return of peace. Because the action all takes place on a single Sunday, most of the characters are shown at their leisure rather than at work. "Waterloo Road" was made while the war was still being fought, and, like many wartime films, was made with an obvious propaganda purpose in mind. (Its short running time, less than an hour and a quarter, suggests that this may have been a B-movie on a double bill). In this case the aim was to contrast the courage and decency of the British fighting man with the decadence and corruption of the spivs.
Jim Colter, a soldier in the British army, receives a letter from his sister informing him that his wife Tillie is having an affair with Ted Purvis, an amusement arcade proprietor. (Tillie is certainly friendly with him, although her sister-in-law might have jumped to unwarranted conclusions in assuming that their relationship is a sexual one. In the forties film-makers could not be too explicit about such matters). Although Purvis is a young man of military age, he has managed to avoid serving in the Forces by bribing a corrupt doctor to provide him with a false medical certificate. Purvis' black market activities have brought him considerable wealth, and he also has a reputation as a womaniser. Colter therefore goes AWOL in order to return home, confront Purvis and try and save his marriage.
"It Always Rains on Sunday" is, in my view, one of the neglected classics of the British cinema. It has a genuinely tragic heroine in Rose, whose tragedy is that the man she loves is a violent rogue, who does not love her but makes use of her when it is in his interests, and that she cannot love her husband who is a decent, kindly man and treats her well. "Waterloo Road" is not in the same class- it is lighter in tone with a happy ending, and no moral complexities; good is good, bad is bad, and good will always win in the end. Nevertheless, it still remains watchable today, for two reasons.
Firstly, it features two of the best-known stars of the British cinema, John Mills as Colter and Stewart Granger as Purvis. There is a deliberate contrast drawn between the characters, Colter being played as solid and decent, Purvis as flashy, superficial and lacking in fibre. When the two have a fight, the audience will all be on Colter's side, even though the fight scenes are not, by modern standards, very convincing. (As another reviewer has pointed out, it is difficult to imagine the relatively diminutive Mills getting the better of the tall, powerfully-built Granger in a fight). There is also a good cameo performance from Alastair Sim as Dr Montgomery, the local GP who disapproves of Purvis' morals and who, at the end of the film, has to give him some unwelcome news. The second reason why the film remains watchable is that it contains some well-observed social observations of a working-class community in wartime. As in "It Always Rains on Sunday" we see a lot of the leisure activities of the period- not just Purvis' amusement arcade, but also a café, a dance hall and a pub. This is a wartime period piece which still has something to offer the modern viewer. 6/10