Charlie returns to the East End after two years at sea to find his house demolished and wife Maggie gone. Everyone else knows she is now shacked up with married bus driver Bert and a toddler, and they all watch with more than a little interest at the trail of mayhem Charlie leaves as he goes about sorting things out.
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
Queenie Watts
Queenie
Victor Spinetti
Arnold
Jenny Sontag
Momma
May Scagnelli
Gran
Fanny Carby
Lil
Yootha Joyce
Barmaid
Janet Howse
Janet
John Junkin
Bridge Operator
Harry H. Corbett
Greengrocer
Marjie Lawrence
Girl
Glynn Edwards
Charlie's Friend
Gerry Raffles
Lorry Driver
Rita Webb
Maggie's Neighbor
Eve Eden
Eve
Paddy Joyce
Barman
Director, Screenplay
Joan Littlewood
Screenplay, Writer
Stephen Lewis
September 25, 2022
5
Well it all starts rather inauspiciously with Barbara Windsor singing the Lionel Bart penned title song. Good? Well, no - not very. Thereafter we discover that she ("Maggie") used to be married to "Charlie" (James Booth) who has just returned from being at sea. Thing is, their marital house has been demolished and she has moved on to a new life with bus driver "Bert" (George Sewell) and he is determined to get her back. The whole thing has a made for television look to it and though there is a formidable array of British comic acting talent on display, I found the writing to be really weak with the limitations of Miss Windsor as an actress being writ large as she really struggles to carry this (very lightly) comedic enterprise - riddled with innuendo and stereotype - for ninety minutes. It perhaps doesn't help that the narrative centres around life in a fairly pedestrian East End (of London) community and that after a short while there are so many suds you could run a Chinese laundry for a fortnight. It may well have resonated better in 1963 when it offered a plausible depiction of life in a small, tightly knit, community within a big city, but I am afraid now it has lost what potency it had. Cinema nostalgia it probably is if Cockney is your natural dialect. For the rest of us, it's just all rather dull.
Status:
Released
Original Language:
English
Budget:
$0.00
Revenue:
$0.00