London Belongs to Me

1948 1h 47m EN

👍

7.0

SOLID

★7.0TMDB · 15

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Classic British drama about the residents of a large terrace house in London between Christmas 1938 and September 1939. Percy Boon lives with his mother in a shared rented house with an assortment of characters in central London. Although well intentioned, he becomes mixed up with gangsters and murder. The story focuses on the effects this has on Percy and the other residents.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

Richard Attenborough
Percy Boon
Alastair Sim
Mr. Squales
Fay Compton
Mrs. Josser
Stephen Murray
Uncle Henry
Wylie Watson
Mr. Josser
Susan Shaw
Doris Josser
Hugh Griffith
Headlam Fynne
Joyce Carey
Mrs Vizzard

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Sidney Gilliat
Writers: Sidney Gilliat, J.B. Williams
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

78 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Sidney Gilliat, shot by Wilkie Cooper. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Benjamin Frankel. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Thelma Connell shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Richard Attenborough and Alastair Sim and Fay Compton carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0040548 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

Only 15 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Sidney Gilliat directs. Wilkie Cooper behind the camera. Benjamin Frankel scores. Thelma Connell cuts. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

178 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
2Directed by Sidney Gilliat, shot by Wilkie Cooper. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by Benjamin Frankel. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Thelma Connell shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Richard Attenborough and Alastair Sim and Fay Compton carry the top of the cast.
6IMDB entry: tt0040548 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
7Only 15 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Wilkie Cooper
Original score: Benjamin Frankel
Editing: Thelma Connell
Runtime: 107 min · 1h 47m
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: London Belongs to Me (1948)

Also by

Sidney Gilliat

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2022-07-09
★ 7/10
Richard Attenborough leads a somewhat disjointed cast in this rather lengthy drama. He is "Percy", a rather impressionable young man who lives with his beloved mother (Gladys Henson) in a boarding house amidst a host of interesting lodgers. Sadly for him, he is soon mixed up with the wrong sort - some small time hoodlums - and becomes a murder suspect. I suppose the house to be a metaphor for the broader United Kingdom following the end of WWII - a collection of the aspirational, the optimistic, and the resigned - but there are too many characters for us to keep tabs on, and though the efforts from Alastair Sim as the Dickensianly titled "Mr. Squales"; Stephen Murray, the lovely Fay Compton ("Mrs. Josser") and a superb series of scenes, rather late in the day, from Hugh Griffith all stand up fine on their own, the film as a combination piece is pretty much all over the place. Attenborough tries hard, and at times he does fire on all cylinders, but he isn't quite good enough to pull all the strands together, nor is the Sidney Gilliat direction/screenplay, so it can come across as just a little too much of an episodic compendium of loosely connected stories rather than a cohesive feature. Still, it does provide us with quite an interesting observation of post war London and of a way of communal life now (mercifully) long gone for most of us.

Production companies