It Always Rains on Sunday

While Ealing Studios is best remembered for its comedies, the studio worked successfully across genres – with It Always Rains on Sunday, the studio produced one of the earliest and best examples of British Film Noir. 

Based on the novel by Arthur La Bern (adapted elsewhere in Hitchcock’s Frenzy), the film is a gritty drama that plays out in the rain-drenched streets of the East End of London over the course of one Sunday. 

Frustrated housewife Rose has her world turned upside down by the sudden reappearance of an old flame, Tommy, who is on the run after escaping from prison. Rose hides Tommy in her bedroom as the police and press close in.

Featuring excellent central performances from real-life couple, Googie Withers and John McCallum, It Always Rains on Sunday vividly renders life in the post-War East End. The film memorably climaxes with a chase sequence filmed in the railway yards of Stratford, shot by Ealing’s celebrated cinematographer Douglas Slocombe.