Sparrows Can't Sing (1963)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

Joan Littlewood

Writers:

Stephen Lewis (play)
Stephen Lewis (screenplay)

Release Date:

30 October 1964 (Finland)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

Sailor, sailor, home from the sea - where little stranger can there one be ?

Plot:

Charlie returns to the East End after two years at sea to find his house demolished and wife Maggie gone...

Plot Keywords:

Animal In Title | Based On Play | Independent Film

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award.

Cast

James Booth	...	Charlie Gooding
Barbara Windsor	...	Maggie Gooding
Roy Kinnear	...	Fred Gooding
Avis Bunnage	...	Bridgie Gooding
Brian Murphy	...	Jack
George Sewell	...	Bert
Barbara Ferris	...	Nellie Gooding
Griffith Davies	...	Chunky
Murray Melvin	...	Georgie
Arthur Mullard	...	Ted
Peggy Ann Clifford	...	Ted's Wife
Wally Patch	...	Watchman
Bob Grant	...	Perce
Stephen Lewis	...	Caretaker
Victor Spinetti	...	Arnold

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (video rating) | Finland:S

Filming Locations:

Limehouse, London, England, UK

Company:

Carthage Films

Trivia:

Notorious real-life East End gangsters the Kray twins have walk-on parts towards the end of the film.

Soundtrack:

Sparrows Can't Sing

non stop believable banter and jesting

Derived from her own Stratford East stage show, this Joan Littlewood film apparently did no better than its non celluloid counterpart. Now it appears fresh, confident and so evocative but I have never seen it before and like many, I suppose, wouldn't have been the slightest bit interested at age 16 in 1963 with the Beatles and all that was to follow. Seen now, however, with all that location shooting and streets that are gone depicted so well. And what irony! The fabulous extended opening shows our hero/villain returning from sea to find his wife and cannot even find his house. Bulldozed slums, replaced by brand new 18 storey blocks of flats and even they bulldozed in turn in 2000. Back to the film and it is non stop believable banter and jesting. The film does not let up once and only in the final splendid sequence in the pub do we see a trace of the theatrical origins. For anyone who has ever visited or lived in London, absolutely essential. For every one else, well worth seeing to get just a glimpse of the old East End and just an inkling of what it really was once like when everybody seemed to know almost everyone else.