If you're looking to watch a very young Deborah Kerr movie, or if you like movies about how life is terrible in English slums, look no further than Love on the Dole. If your motivation is something other than the abovementioned factors, you might want to pick out something else for tonight's entertainment.
As is the setting for many of these types of English dramas, the main family is incredibly poor during the Great Depression. As the children grow up, they dream about getting married and starting families of their own, but when the patriarch and son lose their jobs, money is tight and fantasies are replaced by realities. How will they make ends meet, and what will Deborah Kerr, the teenaged daughter, do to help them?
It's a pretty depressing story, but that's to be expected, given the setup. Deborah Kerr is given a complex character to show off her acting chops in one of her first major roles, but I can't really recommend watching this one unless you love her more than life itself and want to watch every single one of her movies. Watch I See a Dark Stranger for a young Deborah Kerr role in a movie that isn't nearly as depressing.
Plot summary
In industrialised 1930s North-West England the Hardcastle family along with the rest of the village struggle to make ends meet. Son Harry has some luck on the horses which helps for a while but as the Depression deepens neither he nor his father can find work. When Harry leaves home to be with his pregnant girlfriend, pressure mounts on attractive daughter Sally to solve the family's problems as best she can.
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Movie Reviews
Poor English slums
Couldnt be made when relevant
There were a number of potential films that were unmade until war was declared,and this was one.Directed by one of the great British directors,John Baxter.Starring Deborah Kerr on her way to the top,without as claimed in another review a cockney accent.
Honesty at last
Absolutely stunning movie, finally a true representation of life of the working families of the 30's. A scandal that they could not get this film made in the 30's because it's story was regarded as sordid and dangerous by the board of censors. If like me you come from working class families who lived through that era, the stories this film tells are true. The movie must have been shockingly brutal to the establishment and credit to the producer's for taking it on. The downside to the movie is the acting and the direction. The accent's are awful but actors then had to have a clipped middle england accent to get work. I loved the film especially the 4 old ladies holding court on the street. Special mention must go to Marjorie Rhodes character, Mrs Bull who's savage honesty of each situation was a breath of fresh air in the acrid atmosphere of relentless poverty.