The Bells Go Down

James Mason later recalled with satisfaction that "my only contact with what was to become artistically the most distinguished workshop in the British film industry" when he joined the cast of this tribute to the Auxiliary Fire Service by Ealing studios.

Basil Dearden's first solo venture as director was intended to bring home the havoc wrought by the blitz and pulls no punches on the shattering effect it had on morale as well as the criminality let loose, the slackening of public morals and the resentment servicemen felt towards workers in essential war work who they saw as earning "three quid a week for keeping out of the army!"

To modern eyes there's the usual anomaly of two young newlyweds looking aghast at their humble new flat which seventy years later looks positively palatial.