Sparrows Can't Sing

Sparrows Can't Sing (1963)

Charlie returns to the East End after two years at sea to find his house demolished and wife Maggie gone. Everyone else knows she is now shacked up with married bus driver Bert and a toddler, and they all watch with more than a little interest at the trail of mayhem Charlie leaves as he goes about sorting things out.

Date of release
1963-03-26
TMDB
5.3 / 10 (25)
Runtime
1h 34m
Genres
Comedy, Drama
Director
Joan Littlewood

Casting

Interesting facts

Sparrows Can't Sing is a 1963 British kitchen sink comedy, the only film that Joan Littlewood directed. It starred James Booth and Barbara Windsor. It was written by Stephen Lewis based on his 1960 play Sparrers Can't Sing, first performed at Littlewood's Theatre Workshop in the Theatre Royal Stratford East. The producer was Donald Taylor.

Production

The film was made on location during the summer of 1962 in Limehouse, Isle of Dogs, Stepney, around the theatre in Stratford, and at Elstree Studios. Sets were occasionally visited by nearby Vallance Road residents the Kray twins. Some sources claim the Krays made a cameo appearance towards the end of the film, but film historian Richard Dacre states this is not the case.

The dialogue is a mixture of Cockney rhyming slang, London Yiddish, and thieves' cant. The New York Times said in its review: "this isn't a picture for anyone with a logical mind or an ear for language. The gabble of cockney spoken here is as incomprehensible as the reasoning of those who speak it." It was also the first English language film to be released in the United States with subtitles.

The original music was by James Stevens, incidental music was composed by Stanley Black.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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