This is a highly compressed social drama in wartime involving the lives of many different characters from various social layers of London, excluding only every glimpse of any upper class. Doctor Alastair Sim introduces the events from a view after the war, whereupon you are miraculously transferred from a bombed out London street to what it was before the ruins. He has a fairly good view of the whole chart of ingredients of the human destinies involved. The main characters are Stewart Granger and John Mills, both as very young men och rivals of the same woman, who is John Mills' wife, but he is in the army. He gets an alarm letter of the situation from home and takes leave without leave to handle the situation in his own way, with his fists.
Action is very fast from beginning to end, you have to keep very alert not to miss any detail, also the father with his doves tells a special story of his own, and all the beautiful young ladies... One just giving a glimpse of herself is Jean Kent as a hairdresser with a beauty and intelligence of her own. She is the only one apart from Dr. Sim to see through the debatable character of Stewart Granger.
He makes a villain but not without charming and sympathetic traits, you must admit he has to be successful, until the verdict comes...
Above all, it's a brilliant story told with impressive efficiency, nothing is lost on the way to the towering finale with its advanced acrobatics for a settlement, and every story is told to the full. Even the doves are finally satisfied, and the Doctor finalizes this masterpiece of a kaleidoscopic human record with the same charm as he introduced it with. It's a film well worth seeing several times, since you have to miss something every time...
Action is very fast from beginning to end, you have to keep very alert not to miss any detail, also the father with his doves tells a special story of his own, and all the beautiful young ladies... One just giving a glimpse of herself is Jean Kent as a hairdresser with a beauty and intelligence of her own. She is the only one apart from Dr. Sim to see through the debatable character of Stewart Granger.
He makes a villain but not without charming and sympathetic traits, you must admit he has to be successful, until the verdict comes...
Above all, it's a brilliant story told with impressive efficiency, nothing is lost on the way to the towering finale with its advanced acrobatics for a settlement, and every story is told to the full. Even the doves are finally satisfied, and the Doctor finalizes this masterpiece of a kaleidoscopic human record with the same charm as he introduced it with. It's a film well worth seeing several times, since you have to miss something every time...