SIDEWALKS OF LONDON (1938)

The Story: Charles Laughton, a London busker, is entertaining the queue outside the New Theatre when Libby, a little out-of-work cockney girl, steals the few pence he has collected in his cap. She escapes and later that evening he runs into her at a coffee stall where she is amusing some well-dressed young men by a burlesque of Charles' rendering of "The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God." She steals a gold cigarette case and the story begins...

American title: ST MARTIN'S LANE

Running Time: 85 minutes (black and white)
Genre: Comedy
Director: Tim Whelan
Producer: Erich Pommer
Writers: Bartlett Cormack and Clemence Dane
Photography: Jules Kruger
Music: Arthur Johnson
Choreography: Philip Buchel

Opened: October 18, 1938 in London, UK;    February 15, 1940 in New York, USA

Starring: Charles Laughton (Charles Staggers), Rex Harrison (Harley Prentiss), Vivien Leigh (Liberty or Libby), Larry Adler (as Constantine Dan), Tyrone Guthrie (as Gentry), Maire O'Neill (Mrs. Such), Gus McNaughton (Arthur Smith), Polly Ward (as Frankie), Basil Gill (Magistrate), Helen Haye (as Selina), David Burns (as Hackett), Phyllis Stanley (as Della), Edward Lexy (Mr. Such), Clare Greet (Old Maud), Alf Goddard (as Doggie)

Comments

Larry Adler (he'd been asked to be a musical director for the whole picture, but Vall Parnell, the impresario, wouldn't release him from his touring engagements) said about Vivien Leigh:
She didn't like like Charles and he didn't like her. But he was much more professional. One weekend there a few close-ups of Vivien to be done outside a theatre and Charles, who invariably went sown to the country with Elsa at weekends, stayed up it town to "feed" Vivien Lines from behind the camera. I doubt if she'd have done as much for him. Olivier would show up one set and they'd disappear into her dressing-room and it was quite a business to get her back to work.

Photos: Visit the Photo gallery