London Belongs to Me (1948)

the audience applauded

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

This slice of life film is set in a boarding house in a neighborhood in London just before WWII. Sprinkled throughout the home and the film are a wide variety of strange and interesting characters. So why do I only give the film a 5? Well, despite some clever writing and characters, the movie hinges on one character--a young idiot car thief (Richard Attenborough) who accidentally kills a lady. He clearly might not have meant to kill her but he was responsible for her death and he is no angel. Yet, inexplicably, the last portion of the film is all about a petition to obtain clemency for him. My feelings about this big portion of the film is who cares?! Had he been more likable or innocent, then it would have worked. As it is, the film is seeking empathy for someone simply not deserving it...and it weakens the entire film as a result. Not a terrible film and it is interesting, but ultimately it fails due to so much in the movie resting on this criminal case.

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.

A nicely evoked 1930s setting provides much interest for a viewer in the early 21st century; unfortunately, "London Belongs to Me" has little else to recommend it besides lashings of quaint English charm. All of the problems rest with the deeply unfocused story. The main plot concerns the actions of young lad Richard Attenborough, the problems he gets into and how the community in which he lives bands together to save him from society's laws. Or something. The main issue here is that Attenborough's character brings everything upon himself and, quite frankly, is guilty of almost every accusation brought against him, so it's baffling why the film (and all the characters) have so much sympathy for him. He's treated as a victim of circumstance when he really, really isn't; and what's more he isn't shown to have very much remorse for his actions, only caring about getting away with things he didn't mean to do. Alastair Sim gets a lot of screen time in a subplot that has absolutely nothing to do with the main plot line and you wonder what he's doing there (though Sim is, as always, superb). You know there's a problem with the structure when the main plot impacts constantly against the subplot but not vice-versa. And, following a sedate pace and a careful build up, the plot completely falls apart in the last 20 minutes with a deeply unsatisfying and unexplained conclusion which doesn't even show us if Attenborough's character has developed at all from the previous proceedings. The film doesn't end, it just stops.The acting, direction and the general feel of the film can all be commended but unfortunately the story and structure of the piece jars constantly. A last point of trivia: Alec Guinness based his performance in the vastly superior film "The Ladykillers" on Alastair Sim's performance in this film, right down to both the characters having almost identical first scenes.

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.