Love on the Dole

Depressing and realistic family drama about the struggles of unemployment and poverty in 1930s Lancashire. The 20-year-old Kerr gives an emotionally charged performance as Hardcastle, one of the cotton workers trying to make life better. Interlaced with humour that brings a ray of sunshine to the pervasive bleakness, this remains a powerful social study of life between the wars, and was a rare problem picture to come out of Britain at the time.

Director: John Baxter

Cast: Deborah Kerr, Clifford Evans, George Carney, Mary Merrall, Geoffrey Hibbert, Joyce Howard, Frank Cellier, Martin Walker

Audience-only score — full critic data not yet in the ReelXO vault.