It Always Rains on Sunday

A wicked stepmother is exposed as having once had a heart. That’s one way we could describe Robert Hamer’s It Always Rains on Sunday, especially if it had been filmed from the point of view of one of the Sandigate daughters. The stepmother in this case, however, is the protagonist, and she’s not really wicked, just a little — okay, a lot — churlish. Rose Sandigate (Googie Withers) is a discontented housewife with a short fuse, living with her kind and patient husband George (Edward Chapmann) and his two adult daughters (Anna Shaw, Paula Plunkett) from a prior marriage. We come to understand why Rose is disenchanted with her life when she receives a surprise visit from her former fiancé Tommy Swann (John McCallum) who has just escaped from prison and with whom Rose is still in love, as evident in her willingness to shelter him without her family’s knowledge, despite the police manhunt underway and the interpersonal skirmishes unfolding in the Sandigate household. The film blends family drama with a criminal storyline, maintaining consistent tension even if it lacks the action of other noirs; the opening and closing chase sequences are unmistakably noir, Hamer bathing the screen in shadows while experimenting with a variety of angles and shots. Rose comes alive whenever Tommy’s in her presence, but the sense of doom in the air assures us that her aliveness is bound to be left behind yet again.