Sparrows Can't Sing

Sparrows Can't Sing

1h 34m 5.1/10

Overview

Charlie returns to the East End after two years at sea to find his house demolished and wife Maggie gone. Everyone else knows she is now shacked up with married bus driver Bert and a toddler, and they all watch with more than a little interest at the trail of mayhem Charlie leaves as he goes about sorting things out.

Director

Joan Littlewood

Top Billed Cast

James Booth

James Booth

Charlie Gooding

Roy Kinnear

Roy Kinnear

Fred Gooding

Barbara Windsor

Barbara Windsor

Maggie Gooding

George Sewell

George Sewell

Bert

Avis Bunnage

Avis Bunnage

Bridgie Gooding

Brian Murphy

Brian Murphy

Jack

Reviews

CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

9/25/2022

5/10

Well it all starts rather inauspiciously with Barbara Windsor singing the Lionel Bart penned title song. Good? Well, no - not very. Thereafter we discover that she ("Maggie") used to be married to "Charlie" (James Booth) who has just returned from being at sea. Thing is, their marital house has been demolished and she has moved on to a new life with bus driver "Bert" (George Sewell) and he is determined to get her back. The whole thing has a made for television look to it and though there is a formidable array of British comic acting talent on display, I found the writing to be really weak with the limitations of Miss Windsor as an actress being writ large as she really struggles to carry this (very lightly) comedic enterprise - riddled with innuendo and stereotype - for ninety minutes. It perhaps doesn't help that the narrative centres around life in a fairly pedestrian East End (of London) community and that after a short while there are so many suds you could run a Chinese laundry for a fortnight. It may well have resonated better in 1963 when it offered a plausible depiction of life in a small, tightly knit, community within a big city, but I am afraid now it has lost what potency it had. Cinema nostalgia it probably is if Cockney is your natural dialect. For the rest of us, it's just all rather dull.

Similar Movies

Little Miss Sunshine

7.7

Little Miss Sunshine

2006

Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself

6.5

Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself

2002

Bridget Jones's Diary

6.7

Bridget Jones's Diary

2001

Annaluise & Anton

7.1

Annaluise & Anton

1999

Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams

6.8

Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams

2006

Boys Don't Cry

7.4

Boys Don't Cry

1999

Home Away from Home

0.0

Home Away from Home

1993

Beyond Silence

6.9

Beyond Silence

1996

Bollywood/Hollywood

5.6

Bollywood/Hollywood

2002