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Reviews
Innocent Sinners (1958)
Larry Adler's film score
I was very young when I saw 'Innocent Sinners'. The story and harmonica music by Larry Adler captured an 11 year old. I sat mesmerised in the front row of the ABC cinema in Eltham High Street, south London. Up to then, I'd had to view (Saturday morning matinées were de rigeur) films from America that had nothing in common with my life or the life of any children I knew. This was my first film view which had raw music to underscore a story. Was this combination of music and film an early example of the art? The story was a British story with children who were post-war survivors of the Blitz. I grow a wild flower in my garden in honour of this film about gardening in the rubble. The flower is Rose Bay Willow Herb or 'Fireweed'. The seeds thrive when burnt. The survivors of the Blitx knew the flower only too well on the bomb sites of post-war London.