None But The Lonely Heart

This was a daring and inventive film in its day, and Grant, playing the dedicated outsider, and Barrymore, as his cockney mother, are superb. The time is just prior to WWII and the place is Whitechapel in the East End of London. Through these mean streets wanders Grant, a shiftless but lighthearted young man whose mother, Barrymore, runs a dingy second-hand furniture store. Grant and his mother exchange barbs whenever they meet; however, Grant is seldom home to occupy his room above the store. Instead, he vagabonds his way through the area, cadging cigarettes and food from friendly shopkeepers who have known him since boyhood. Particularly concerned about Grant and...