A Rua da Vaidade

Worth it for the locations and the London atmosphere. Several stories are linked by Hazel Court's wedding. Who made her wedding dress, mended her veil, fixed her pearl necklace, sent her flowers?

Kathleen Harris is at the centre of the "wedding dress" segment, set in the sewing work room of a dress shop. Her daughter is having a baby, and in her distress she rips the dress she's altering. Her workmates (including Joan Hickson and Joan Dowling) rally round.

In the next segment, rather clunkily announced by a Pathe news type voiceover, Patricia Plunkett is an invisible mender, separated from her slimy husband, played by Kenneth Griffiths. He really puts on the best turn. Ron Howard turns up with a torn trouser-leg... (Patricia isn't great at sewing!)

Now we have the noir slice of life - Derek Farr shoots a man while robbing a jeweller's, and takes refuge with hard-faced street-walker Jean Kent. Farr was certainly versatile, and is quite frightening with dyed dark hair. Kent is a joy as always. They have a brief affair, but it's not going to end well.

I fast-forwarded over the last bit, which concerns Hazel Court's wedding and an unfortunate Danish entanglement who must be hastily repatriated to Scandinavia. She is a stereotype - horribly large and hearty, dressed in a "jelly-bag" hat.

Patricia Plunkett reprises her character from It Always Rains on a Sunday, while Kathleen Harrison tones down her usual shtick. Both of them are playing working-class characters. They convince, but why do they have to come over as half-witted? Perhaps Plunkett is supposed to be "sweet, innocent and trusting", and this is why she appeals to Ron Howard who is playing a lamb.

Harrison is by no means as half-witted as usual, but it still grates. They are at the end of a theatrical convention that sent up working-class characters. See the various actresses who have played the maid in Philomel Cottage/Love from a Stranger. (Including Joan Hickson.) See the maid in Blithe Spirit. Thank goodness kitchen-sink dramas came along in ten years or so.

Fashion in the years 1948-50 didn't change much from the war years - clothes became a bit more luxurious and fancy. For a full account read Eric Newby's Something Wholesale. (As a designer he survived the New Look.)