A Cry from the Streets (1958) User Reviews

Intriguing, if anything

[naseby · 6/10 · 10 February 2009]

Watchable - just, but as the reviewers here before me have said, some interesting points. Barbara Murray's character, plays a children's social worker, finding suitable care for London's neglected and/or orphaned children. At the same time of course, just like today, there are obstacles to overcome. An alcoholic mum being talked into taking back her offspring from the hands of the social services, (On the proviso she straightens her act up) and three children find themselves in lumber, due to the dad murdering their mum, then he subsequently, is hanged, naturally. (This was 1958).

There's the love interest of course, with a young-ish Max Bygraves playing the man with 'a story' of his own, the lovable 'TV engineer' type of bloke who is famously reliable, at the same time getting involved with Murray and managing to lecture her on how she picks up and throws away the kids etc. But he's the 'really nice' sort, who loves kids, after managing to tell his story of how his own wife and young son died in a rail crash. He even takes them out on a picnic with Murray. The end of the film sees him and Murray going off into the sunset, taking on one of the young neglected for their own.

As has been said, interesting that some things have changed over the many years, some for the better, some for the bad, but a good comment on THOSE times. A good one for the classroom on British Social History, you know, that boring subject that went on about workers' housing in industrial towns like Saltaire etc etc., but nonetheless, that all has its important niche. A nice thing to see is a young Sean Barrett as one of the older kids from the children's home - who? I hear you ask! Okay, he's here on IMDb, but a famous refined voice for the BBC's 'Timewatch' documentary series and countless other narrations.

A gem

[fostrhod · 7/10 · 31 May 2021]

What's wonderful film, it's nostalgic look at social work, or should that be rose tinted view of social work ( even in its day) when the film was made. It does pull at the heart strings and it's a gem.

A Friend in Need

[richardchatten · 6/10 · 14 January 2021]

A fresh-faced young Max Bygraves is charming and appealing in the first of two socially concerned dramas he made (the second being 'Spare the Rod') which touches upon such vexatious contemporary issues as juvenile delinquency, capital punishment and domestic violence. Larry Adler supplies an appropriately wistful harmonica score, and Aussie tyke Colin Petersen surprise, surprise shows a precocious talent for - you guessed it - the harmonica; on which he accompanies Max when he bursts into song in one scene.

Fortunately we don't have hanging anymore, but firearms sadly are hardly the aberration today they're portrayed as here; while it's also a sign of the times that drunken mother Eleanor Summerfield occupies a shabby but extremely spacious London flat that would today be prohibitively expensive for her to live in.

A film of its time

[mike-scofield · 7 February 2009]

What a pity that the previous reviewer fails to judge the film in the context of its time ; post war London.

Its very a simplistic view of life in the 1950's that doesn't try to be highbrow or talk down to its audience.

Smoking was incredibly common in those days & the film merely shows life as it was. Children being told to go off & gather flowers on their own is certainly something that would be unusual in 2009, but in my own childhood in the 60's was 100% normal.

Its a fantastic social 'document' showing us where we have come from & perhaps reminding us that our modern predilection for wrapping our children in cotton might not be the best way forward.

Pity The Children

[boblipton · 6/10 · 29 August 2021]

Barbara Murray is a social worker who tries to find good homes for her children. She's frustrated by some of the foster parents, who are uncaring. Her new friend, Max Bygraves, thinks she should be paying more attention to him, but gradually comes to care about the children too.

It's a sympathetic view of lack of support for children, not only by the system, but also in its portraits of the actual parents. I found it to be a good movie, even though the high-pitched piping of the children annoyed me by the end. Bygraves sings one song, "Gotta Have Rain", with accompaniment by Larry Adler. It charted in the UK, and was a hit for Eydie Gormé in the United States.

Superb!

[mls4182 · 8/10 · 22 December 2021]

Given the subject matter, you would think this film would be unbearably frank and gritty or sickeningly sentimental. It us neither. It manages to strike a balance. It does show the 0light of children who don't have stable families, but given it being a 1950s film, it doesn't deal with some disturbing truths. It has a touch of comic relief, as needed,

This film has a top notch cast at their very best.

Deserved an X certificate

[jromanbaker · 4/10 · 28 February 2019]

I saw this film on Talking Pictures, a UK television channel which is an invaluable source of mainly British films from former decades. It is a treasure trove. I watched this Lewis Gilbert film expecting better. I also watched it for Barbara Murray, an excellent actor who was not given enough of worth. Her 'love' relationship with Max Bygraves was implausible and somehow funny for all the wrong reasons. What on earth were they thinking in casting her: highly sophisticated and worldly (in the Kay Kendall sense) with him? No, this is not snobbery, it just equals no chemistry. Apart from her there was Sean Barrett, one of our finest and most handsome actors, too rarely used at the end of the Fifties, looking way too old to be in a children's home.

Now for the content of the film with as few spoilers as possible. Set in a children's home run by people with almost zero empathy, the children are at the heart of the story. I am not sure why in 1958 it did not have an X certificate. 'Cosh Boy' by the same director did and that was a laugh a minute in comparison. A boy who loses his alcoholic mother to suicide; a boy with a loaded gun under his bed which ends up in the hands of young children who aim it at themselves and just, and I do mean just, miss out on killing Max Bygraves. The atmosphere was as dark as a film by Clouzot (Les Diaboliques) and would have had a fatalistic feeling for most children at the time. Hanging is even casually mentioned!! Yes, I know it was post war but it is definitely not fit for children. A mixture of children's film and very adult material, all wrapped up nicely with a ribbon at the end: a final frame of a desolate looking boy staring out at us. His was the cry from the streets.

A better film than many think

[dhensonuk · 8/10 · 29 November 2019]

This is not a bad film, and a very welcome look at the complexities of children and the relationships adults have with them. None of the character are simple, mny are complex and some of it is actually hard to watch. Don't judge this this my our own sugar-coated, health and safety obsessed view of children today. See it as a realistic portrayal of children and societal problems of the 1950s. Then think how we see children and their lives today - overly protected and overly idealised. There are also hints of the good actor Max Bygraves could have been had he not gone for a singing career.

cryalongamax

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 20 January 2006]

there are some new satellite channels in the UK,bad movies and matinée movies, which are showing a lot of old British films from the 40s and 50s.The sort that used to be shown on terrestial channels at 2 am.These are at times rather intriguing,because occasionally i will view a film that i saw in the cinema and think "Did i really pay money to watch this".I suppose that everyone,not least Max Bygraves has probably forgotten that he appeared in a number of films in the 50s.There is little that can be said in favour of this film except how times have changed.When Barbara Murray goes to see a foster mother one of the fostered children is actually encouraged to strike a match to light her cigarette!A child is encouraged to leave a home to go and live with his alcoholic mother.4 young children are let off a bus on their own to go wandering in a wood.If you are interested in the period then it is worth a look,otherwise give it a miss.