Summer Under the Stars 2011 -- Day Seven Review: Sidewalks of London

The British film industry prior to World War II doesn't have quite the same clout among international movie fans as does, say, the German or French film industries, which is both an unfair and probably unavoidable result of British cinema being so closely tied to Hollywood and American films. A lot of top-shelf talent came out of Britian during the 1920s and 30s, including the directors David Lean and Alfred Hitchcock, the producer Alexander Korda, and countless numbers of actors, including Charlie Chaplin (pictured), Ronald Colman, Vivien Leigh, Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier. Unfortunately, most of those actors became stars after they started working with American studios, and while Britain produced many worthy films during the thirties, they also clogged their output with "Quota Quickies" -- cheap, generally poorly-made films designed to combat the influx of American films into the British market. The result was that, while Germany produced such landmark films as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Metropolis, and Pandora's Box, Britain has fewer truly "important" films to show for itself prior to 1939.

That all changed during the forties, with the emergence of a stronger British film industry and films like The Red Shoes and Brief Encounter, but to completely dismiss the British films of the twenties and thirties is a mistake. A number of excellent films came out of England during those two decades, many of them starring Charles Laughton, TCM's star of the day for the seventh day of August. Laughton never had  leading-man looks, but he became a star nonetheless, thanks to his strong screen presence and ability to slip seamlessly from one character-rich role to the next. During the thirties alone, he played Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Captain Bligh in Mutiny on the Bounty, Dr. Moreau in The Island of Lost Souls, and Henry VIII in The Private Lives of Henry VIII. He also excelled in smaller roles, like the murderous bank clerk in Payment Deferred and the alcoholic street busker in the film I chose to watch for Summer Under the Stars, Sidewalks of London.

Released in 1938, Sidewalks of London costars Laughton with Vivien Leigh as a pair of street performers who sing, dance, and recite dramatic monologues as a way to make a living. Laughton and Leigh apparently didn't get along very well in real life, but they have nice chemistry on screen, especially after Leigh's character's career skyrockets, leaving Laughton's character in the dust. Leigh is good, though occasionally overly-dramatic, in her final role before Gone with the Wind, but Laughton is the real star of the film, eliciting both sympathy and laughs as a man whose recitation skills don't quite measure up to his passion for performing.

Sidewalks of London is pretty bare-bones compared to the slick Hollywood productions of the same time period, without much finesse in terms of scene transitions or camera work, but that rough-around-the-edges quality serves the story well, reinforcing the idea of the street performers as raw amatuers, devoid of anything except their talent. It's a nice metaphor for the entire British film industry in 1938: simple and charming, with a great deal of potential simmering just below the surface.

Grade: B