The Sidewalks of London

Original title: St. Martin's Lane

1938
Approved
1h 25m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Vivien Leigh and Charles Laughton in The Sidewalks of London (1938)

Pickpocket Libby gets support from street performer Charles, and her dancing leads to her invitation to theater patron Harley's party, which launches Libby's stage career while Charles keeps... Read allPickpocket Libby gets support from street performer Charles, and her dancing leads to her invitation to theater patron Harley's party, which launches Libby's stage career while Charles keeps struggling in the streets.Pickpocket Libby gets support from street performer Charles, and her dancing leads to her invitation to theater patron Harley's party, which launches Libby's stage career while Charles keeps struggling in the streets.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

1.5K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
Made in London just before England's entrance into World War II, this film was co-produced by a refugee from Adolf Hitler, the great German producer of Metropolis (1927) and many other classic UFA movies, Erich Pommer. It was directed by an American from Hollywood, Tim Whelan, and features another American, the great harmonica virtuoso, Larry Adler, who was to return to live in exile in England after the war after he was blacklisted in the U.S. Adler went on to compose and perform the score for the classic English comedy Genevieve (1953). The role of the tall busker Gentry was played by Tyrone Guthrie who would be knighted and would one day become Artistic Director of Canada's Stratford Festival and founder of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. This movie was edited by Robert Hamer, who would go on to direct the Ealing Studio comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) and others.

Goofs
In the scene where Libby wrecks Charlie's apartment and holds the sewing machine up to throw it, the figure who enters through the door with his back to the camera is clearly a body double for Charles Laughton.

Quotes
Liberty 'Libby': Just a minute! Look here, mister, who does this lovely world belong to, eh? To the people who live on it, you say? Well, I'm one of them. And I've got just the same taste as all the rest. You should be surprised. I get hungry. I get thirsty. I get cold. I enjoy smoke and a permanent wave, and whatever I can get in the way of extras. And why shouldn't I have them?

Crazy credits
Opening credits start as names on a City of Westminster street sign.

Connections
Featured in The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind (1988)

Soundtracks
London Love Song
Music by Arthur Johnston
Lyrics by Eddie Pola

User reviews36

Review

Featured review

7/10

Mad for Viv? Get Your Fix Right Here.

I'm forced by conscience to admit right off that I've been a complete sap for Vivien Leigh since the moment I laid eyes on her sitting between the "Tarlton Twins" on the steps at Twelve Oaks in the opening seconds of GWTW. But in decades of looking to find that =particular= Vivien Leigh again, I was everlastingly frustrated.

I found over time that I had fallen for the Vivien the Vixen, the face that could send men happily off to (civil) war in delirious dreams of marching home to her and "happily ever after" ...and the cocksure certainty of precisely that effect upon any man who dared to gaze into that face for more than a few seconds.

One wonders how much she was aware of the thermonuclear force of that face in real life. Olivier is gone, and so is she, so we'll probably never know. But we do know this: Vivien's best friend as a youngster was the formidable -- and slightly older -- Maureen O'Sullivan, she of "Tarzan the Apeman," and no lightweight herself when it came to bowling men over.

While there are hints of Scarlet in Vivien in "Waterloo Bridge" and "That Hamilton Woman," none of the other films I know of allow her to be the manipulative, coercive, self-obsessed, narcissistic, pouting diva that she was as Libby and Scarlet.

Had Selznick seen rushes or scenes from "Sideawalks..." before or after he cast Leigh in her legend maker? Did he see Scarlet right there in black and white? One wonders. Because Libby =is= Scarlet O'Hara regardless of the surrounding scenery and cockney word-chewing.

The similarities do not end there. Virtually every expression and and mannerism is fully formed and on display in Libby the busker =and= Libby the diva. Harrison is a more sophisticated, straightforward and cynical version of Leslie Howard's Ashley Wilkes. And Thomas Mitchell's Gerald O'Hara looks and sounds a =lot= like Lawton's Charlie Staggers.

I'm forced to think that Selznick =did= see "Sidewalks..." and that he saw it far more than once. But in whatever event, those who caught the Viv bug as badly as I did years ago should be pleased to see her living right up to our expectations after so many other relative disappointments.