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g_darryl
Reviews
Innocent Sinners (1958)
A neglected gem
This is one of those British films of the 1950's that never made much of a stir, and you'd probably be lucky ever to see it now (I've only seen it once, on British TV, many years ago). But don't on any account miss seeing it if you ever get the chance: it's a truly enchanting little film, and it haunts me to this day.
The main character is a rather lonely little girl (something of a misfit, akin to the main character in The Member Of The Wedding), who has nothing to do and nothing remotely beautiful to look at in her slummy neighbourhood in post-war London, so she decides to make a garden for herself in a bombed-out church, using increasingly ingenious methods to get hold of the seeds and gardening tools.
Other characters - especially a couple struggling desperately to keep their business afloat (a tiny Italian restaurant with only about half a dozen tables in it) - help to make it one of the best 'feel-good movies' I've ever seen. The IMDB doesn't credit the actress who plays the main character with a single appearance in any other film, but it's a terrible shame: from what I can remember, she was a real 'natural', very like Hayley Mills in Tiger Bay (another unjustly neglected British film).