SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Dreadfully Boring

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

The premise starts out strong. In the process of stealing a car, Breen's friend--who happens to be a girl--gets in. Breen speeds in an attempt to evade a police road block in search of the stolen car. The passenger side door opens, the girl falls out and dies as a result. Breen appears to get away with it. A police inspector falls for one of the girls in the boarding house Breen lives in; through some clever snooping and sleuthing, the police inspector nails Breen as the girl's murderer.So far so good.A trial scene in which Breen is convicted of willful murder. So far so good.The inhabitants of the boarding house decide to hold a march to the Home Office to reprieve Breen; misguided and perhaps character development for the lunacy, the idiosyncrasy of the boarding house tenants. Still OK--even if a bit much for a stretch.The Police Inspector decides to join the march! OK--that's where lunacy descended to idiocy and silliness and perverse. By then--the move was just too silly. The only appropriate ending was to see Breen's sentence commuted form hanging to life in prison without parole.The highlight of the movie--the performance of Alastair Sim as Mr. Henry Squales--a more vile and despicable creature one should ever find on film. (A character Dickens himself would have been proud to create.) "Oleaginous"--and not in the good sense--is the best way to describe Mr. Squales. And Alastair Sim plays the role to perfection. Think Mornau's Nosferatu--the long fingers, the long solitary string of hair descending from a bald pate to a long face attached to a long body. Squales pretending to be some kind of medium so he can get free board and room--oiling his way into the heart of the owner of the boarding house. That performance alone made the move worth seeing despite the descend to silliness.

Confused postwar drama-come-comedy about an idiotic young man who gets involved in car theft and murder.Richard Attenborough plays a complete piker as the young man in a way that becomes really grating. Alastair Sim plays a dodgy geezer playing up to the landlady, in his usual creepy way – but funny and appealing.The first part of the film is serious and then a last unnecessary half-hour is filled with a comic petition to reprieve the young man from the gallows (?).The film seems to be quite well made but the plot seems to look like it was made up of two different stories.

Well, I was actually born in Liverpool, not London, but The Big Smoke is near and dear to my heart, and this film is a wonderful tribute to the city and its inhabitants. Set during 1938 and 1939, London Belongs to Me blends elements of film noir, comedy, drama, and even a smidgen of romance into its story of Percy Boon (Richard Attenborough), a young motor mechanic who finds himself embroiled in the death of a fun fair employee (Eleanor Summerfield). When Percy is found guilty of murder and sentenced to hang, the denizens of Dulcimer Street, led by lefty agitator Uncle Henry (the marvelous Stephen Murray), band together to plead for a reprieve. The final stirring scenes of the film follow the disparate band of Londoners--a cross-section of residents reflecting the cosmopolitan nature of the great metropolis--as they march to deliver their petition to the Home Office. Without giving away too much, the film is resolved in a fashion utterly alien to Hollywood cinema, as Uncle Henry and his friends--including the ineffectual but loyal Mr. Josser (Wylie Watson) and religious crank Headlam Fynne (Hugh Griffith) head off to the pub for a pint. If you, like me, have ever fallen in love with London, you will recognize many of the reasons for your passion in this marvelous and moving film, which has lost none of its power over the years.

Having achieved success in 'Brighton Rock', Dickie Attenborough now carved out a career for himself as a bland English actor with the aid of John Mills. I'm not sure what exactly audiences saw in what he brought to the screen but he certainly didn't have cross over appeal.