It always rained for the Ealing Studios director, but with the reissue of a lost noir classic, it's time his talent was recognised
Robert Hamer was the odd man out at Ealing Studios. He wasn't the only falling-down drunk there, and I daresay he wasn't the only unhappily closeted homosexual, but his work as a writer and director has a sharpness and bite lacking in the genial comedies we associate with the studio.
The revival of Hamer's almost forgotten kitchen sink noir classic from 1947, It Always Rains On Sunday, may come as a shock to those who know Hamer only through his comic masterpiece Kind Hearts And Coronets. Kind Hearts lacks exactly that titular quality, being a spiritedly mean-minded account of multiple murder by a spurned minor aristocrat. Likewise Hamer's last film, School For Scoundrels, which was completed by others as Hamer was by then often battling terrifying Dt hallucinations.
Robert Hamer was the odd man out at Ealing Studios. He wasn't the only falling-down drunk there, and I daresay he wasn't the only unhappily closeted homosexual, but his work as a writer and director has a sharpness and bite lacking in the genial comedies we associate with the studio.
The revival of Hamer's almost forgotten kitchen sink noir classic from 1947, It Always Rains On Sunday, may come as a shock to those who know Hamer only through his comic masterpiece Kind Hearts And Coronets. Kind Hearts lacks exactly that titular quality, being a spiritedly mean-minded account of multiple murder by a spurned minor aristocrat. Likewise Hamer's last film, School For Scoundrels, which was completed by others as Hamer was by then often battling terrifying Dt hallucinations.
- 10/19/2012
- by John Patterson
- The Guardian - Film News
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