Sidewalks of London Movie Review

This tribute to the sidewalk entertainers who performed outside London theatres is a good early showcase for Vivien Leigh as Libby. The lion's share of the attention goes to Charles Laughton as a street performer who befriends Libby and makes her part of his act. Libby has greater ambitions for herself. She wants to be a star and, through her connection with the young songwriter played by Rex Harrison, she becomes one. She also insults Charles when he proposes to her, but then thinks better of it and sets up an audition for him. Charles, needing the attention that he can only get by being a street performer, returns to his pals outside the theatre. Reportedly, Leigh didn't much enjoy the experience of making this picture. There is only one star in a Charles Laughton movie, and she wasn't it. After Gone with the Wind was released, British theatres, hungry for any Vivien Leigh vehicles, re-released this one in 1940. It wasn't up to the glossy MGM standards of 1940's Waterloo Bridge, but the feisty Libby was certainly a lot closer to Scarlett O'Hara than the doomed ballerina Leigh played opposite Robert Taylor. AKA: St. Martin's Lane.

1938 86m/B GB Charles Laughton, Vivien Leigh, Rex Harrison, Larry Adler, Tyrone Guthrie, Gus McNaughton, Bart Cormack, Edward Lexy, Maire O'Neill, Basil Gill, Claire Greet, David Burns, Cyril Smith, Ronald Ward, Romilly Lunge, Helen Haye, Jerry Verno; D: Tim Whelan; W: Clemence Dane; C: Jules Kruger; M: Arthur Johnson. VHS