IT ALWAYS RAINS ON SUNDAY

Dir. Robert Hamer (92min, UK, 1947)
Narrative

With an atmosphere redolent of pre-war French “poetic realism,” the recently rediscovered and restored It Always Rains on Sunday is a Brueghelian slice of post-war British life: amid a raucous street market, a feckless trio of thieves try to unload a truckload of hot roller skates; a music store owner/sax player chases one shiksa too many; a fight fixer drops a thick roll in the youth center collection box; while comfortably pipe-smoking inspector Jack Warner plays Javert throughout a long day — climaxing with an excitingly photographed chase through railroad yards and puffing steam engines, two suicide attempts, and a murder.