It Always Rains on Sunday

From Robert Hamer, the legendary director of Kind Hearts and Coronets, Dead of Night and The Detective! Featured in Time Out’s 100 Best British Films list, It Always Rains on Sunday is considered one of the greatest achievements of 1940s British cinema. Googie Withers (Night and the City) stars as Rose Sandigate, a Bethnal Green housewife whose Sunday is turned upside down by the reappearance of an old flame who is now an escaped convict seeking protection from the police. A rare glimpse into life in London’s East End post WWII, It Always Rains on Sunday was Withers’ last film for Ealing Studios, and due to her wonderful performance as a woman trapped in a claustrophobic domesticity, it remains one of her best. The great Douglas Slocombe (The Lion in Winter, Raiders of the Lost Ark) beautifully shot this classic film noir in glorious black-and-white.