Pickpocket Libby gets support from street performer Charles, and her dancing leads to her invitation to theater patron Harley's party which in turn launches Libby's stage career while Charle... Read allPickpocket Libby gets support from street performer Charles, and her dancing leads to her invitation to theater patron Harley's party which in turn launches Libby's stage career while Charles keeps on struggling in the streets.Pickpocket Libby gets support from street performer Charles, and her dancing leads to her invitation to theater patron Harley's party which in turn launches Libby's stage career while Charles keeps on struggling in the streets.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMade in London just before England's entrance into World War II, this film was co-produced by a refugee from Adolf Hitler, the great German producer of Thành Phố Trung Tâm (1927) and many other classic UFA movies, Erich Pommer. It was directed by an American from Hollywood, Tim Whelan, and features another American, the great harmonica virtuoso, Larry Adler, who was to return to live in exile in England after the war after he was blacklisted in the U.S. Adler went on to compose and perform the score for the classic English comedy Genevieve (1953). The role of the tall busker Gentry was played by Tyrone Guthrie who would be knighted and would one day become Artistic Director of Canada's Stratford Festival and founder of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. This movie was edited by Robert Hamer, who would go on to direct the Ealing Studio comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) and others.
- GoofsIn the scene where Libby wrecks Charlie's apartment and holds the sewing machine up to throw it, the figure who enters through the door with his back to the camera is clearly a body double for Charles Laughton.
- Quotes
Liberty 'Libby': Just a minute! Look here, mister, who does this lovely world belong to, eh? To the people who live on it, you say? Well, I'm one of them. And I've got just the same taste as all the rest. You should be surprised. I get hungry. I get thirsty. I get cold. I enjoy smoke and a permanent wave, and whatever I can get in the way of extras. And why shouldn't I have them?
- Crazy creditsOpening credits start as names on a City of Westminster street sign.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind (1988)
Laughton's performance should be studied by every acting student. He gives us a Charlie Staggers who is funny, resourceful, honest and pathetic and with a great capacity to love and do right by others. He is a simple and good man with a deep soul, and his audition in the theatre at the climax of the picture is both sad and uplifting.
Viven Leigh demonstrates a great talent and the characteristics that made her so successful the following year as Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With the Wind." In this film she begins as a self righteous and petty thief and by the end she has grown to become a highly successful but humbled actress. Leigh carries this change superbly and makes it completely believable. By any measure it is a great performance.
"Sidewalks of London" is also very well written, directed and edited. I rank this as one of the best English language films of the 1930s.
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Details
- Runtime1 hour 25 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1