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Once a Sinner
Once a Sinner
Directed by	Lewis Gilbert
Written by	David Evans
Produced by	John Argyle
Starring	Pat Kirkwood; Jack Watling
Cinematography	Len Harris; Frank North
Edited by	Lister Laurance
Music by	Ronald Binge
Distributed by	Butcher's Film Service (UK); Hoffberg Productions (USA)
Release date	July 1950 (UK);
Running time	78 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Once a Sinner is a 1950 British drama film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Pat Kirkwood, Jack Watling and Joy Shelton.^[1] It was written by David Evans.

Plot

Bank clerk John Ross falls for good-time girl Irene and ends his relationship with his fiancee Vera. Irene leaves her lover Jimmy Smart, a crook who has been passing forged bank notes, and although at first she tries to discourage John, they are quickly married. They soon find that Irene does not get along with John's middle-class parents and friends, and he is questioned by Inspector Rance and his manager at the bank over a counterfeit bank note he failed to spot; he realises that Irene is passing over Smart's counterfeit bank notes to her father and others.

When John finally insists on meeting Irene's mother he is taken aback by her hostility towards her own daughter, but he learns that Irene has a child by her former lover, Jimmy.

John tells her it's over between them and Irene reluctantly goes back to Jimmy and they move to London. A few weeks later, when John's father gives him his letters from Irene which his mother had tried to hide from him, John realises he still wants Irene and he sets off to find her.

The actual counterfeiter, a man called Charlie, lives in the room opposite Jimmy and Irene and she finds out that he actually makes the notes. Charlie arranges to have Jimmy killed and although he manages to kill one of his attackers he is shot and fatally wounded.

John arrives and persuades Irene to go with him and they decide they will try to make a life together in a new place, away from his disapproving family and friends. However, on the train back to town Irene sees Inspector Rance on the train and decides that John would be better off without her, and throws herself from the moving train.

Before John realises what has happened, Inspector Rance comes into his carriage and tells him that Irene is in the clear over the bank notes.

Cast

Pat Kirkwood as Irene James
Jack Watling as John Ross
Joy Shelton as Vera Lamb
Sydney Tafler as Jimmy Smart
Thora Hird as Mrs. James
Humphrey Lestocq as Lewis Canfield
Gordon McLeod as Mr. Ross
Edith Sharpe as Mrs. Ross
Harry Fowler as Bill James
Danny Green as Ticker James
Stuart Lindsell as Inspector Rance
Olive Sloane as Lil
George Street as Bridges
Rose Howlett as Mrs. Lamb
Charles Paton as Mr. Lamb
Stuart Latham as Charlie
Cameron Hall as Mr. Barker
Nora Gordon as Mrs. Barker
Norman Williams as Fred, Barman

Critical reception

In contemporary reviews Kine Weekly wrote: "Pat Kirkwood not only looks and acts the part as the streamlined Irene, Jack Watling registers in the unrewarding role of John, and Sidney Tafler is the most promising of the supporting players. ... The film rattles along at a brisk pace, but much of it is sordid and its unhappy ending fails to ring true."^[2]; The Monthly Film Bulletin said: "Superficial melodrama."^[3] Variety wrote: “In an effort to prove that the upper-class gentry should not mingle with the lower strata, this turns out to be a very thin English effort. It's all told implausibly. The pic carries a certain amount of wallop when It goes sexy, but even this sometimes becomes stilted. Miss Kirkwood supplies the sex lure In a neat flamboyant package. ... Lewis Gilbert's direction seldom is convincing."^[4]

Leslie Halliwell called the film: "an uninteresting character melodrama which defeats its lightweight stars."^[5]

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as “average” and wrote: “Kirkwood surprisingly good in straight role, but film lacks basic credibility.''^[6]

Allmovie wrote: "The magnificent Thora Hird steals the show in Once a Sinner as the fickle Irene's slatternly mother."^[7]

References

^ "Once a Sinner". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
^ "Battle Beneath the Earth". Kine Weekly. 401 (2256): 34. 27 July 1950.
^ "One a Sinner". Monthly Film Bulletin. 17 (193): 120. 1 January 1950.
^ "Once a Sinner". Variety. 185: 28. 18 February 1952.
^ Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 755. ISBN 0-586-08894-6.
^ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 356. ISBN 0-7134-1874-5.
^ "Once a Sinner (1952) - Lewis Gilbert | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related | AllMovie".