The story of a poor Liverpool mother (Harrison) and her two daughters, the honest Nora (Harrison) and the reckless Connie (Shaw), covering the fourteen years from 1919 to 1933. There was a father too (Newton) but he was a careless scoundrel and took off for the entire period without ever writing his family, after which he returned, got drunk, and murdered an unpleasant adversary.
Michael Anderson, the director, manages his job comfortably. The acting is fine, with two exception performances -- exceptional because they are outrageously over the top. I mean it.
Robert Newton is his usual scalawag self, cocking his head, smiling with only his lips, his eyebrows doing a dance atop his orbital sockets. Yet he becomes entirely plausible at the end, when meeting his young son for the first time, handing him a tobacco pouch, one of his few belongings. Second prize for overacting goes to Kenneth Griffith who turns his character into a cartoon of selfishness and lust. You've never seen such excess. When he plies Connie with liquor and she goes upstairs to "lie down" for a while, he watches her climb the steps and his eyeballs bug out. He licks his lips -- literally, licks his lips.
Richard Burton has a minor part too but he doesn't overact at all. Knowing what he's capable of, we might find him a little stiff here, though stern and handsome.
It's all about families and character, about their values and responsibilities. The milieu is grimy and dispiriting. The poverty is oppressive, not colorful, but the performances help the story along.
Michael Anderson, the director, manages his job comfortably. The acting is fine, with two exception performances -- exceptional because they are outrageously over the top. I mean it.
Robert Newton is his usual scalawag self, cocking his head, smiling with only his lips, his eyebrows doing a dance atop his orbital sockets. Yet he becomes entirely plausible at the end, when meeting his young son for the first time, handing him a tobacco pouch, one of his few belongings. Second prize for overacting goes to Kenneth Griffith who turns his character into a cartoon of selfishness and lust. You've never seen such excess. When he plies Connie with liquor and she goes upstairs to "lie down" for a while, he watches her climb the steps and his eyeballs bug out. He licks his lips -- literally, licks his lips.
Richard Burton has a minor part too but he doesn't overact at all. Knowing what he's capable of, we might find him a little stiff here, though stern and handsome.
It's all about families and character, about their values and responsibilities. The milieu is grimy and dispiriting. The poverty is oppressive, not colorful, but the performances help the story along.