DramaCrime

No Trees in the Street

- Kennedy Street: Where a girl learned about life - the hard way!

Based on the play by Ted Willis, the film is set in the years just before World War II, when England hadn't completely dug itself out of the worldwide depression. Melvyn Hayes is featured as an aimless teenager, who tries to escape his squalid surroundings by entering a life of crime. He falls in with local hoodlum Herbert Lom, who holds the rest of the slum citizens in the grip of fear including Hayes' own family. No Trees in the Street chronicles Hayes' sordid progress from nickel-and-dime thefts to murder.

Release Date : 1959-03-03

Language :English

Adult : false

Status : Released

Production Company : Allegro FilmAssociated British Picture Corporation

Production Country : United Kingdom

Alternative Titles :

Cast

Character Name : Hetty

Original Name : Sylvia Syms

Gender : Female

Character Name : Wilkie

Original Name : Herbert Lom

Gender : Male

Character Name : Tommy

Original Name : Melvyn Hayes

Gender : Male

Character Name : Frank

Original Name : Ronald Howard

Gender : Male

Character Name : Kipper

Original Name : Stanley Holloway

Gender : Male

Character Name : Jess

Original Name : Joan Miller

Gender : Female

Character Name : Lova

Original Name : Carole Lesley

Gender : Female

Character Name : Marge

Original Name : Lana Morris

Gender : Female

Character Name : Bill

Original Name : Liam Redmond

Gender : Male

Character Name : Mrs Sarah Jacobson

Original Name : Lily Kann

Gender : Female

Character Name : Mrs Jokel

Original Name : Marianne Stone

Gender : Female

Character Name : Kenny

Original Name : David Hemmings

Gender : Male

Character Name : Jackie

Original Name : Edwin Richfield

Gender : Male

Character Name : Inspector

Original Name : Campbell Singer

Gender : Male

Character Name : Police Superintendent

Original Name : Lloyd Lamble

Gender : Male

Character Name : Reg

Original Name : Richard Shaw

Gender : Male

Character Name : Mrs Brown

Original Name : Rita Webb

Gender : Female

Character Name : Street Orator

Original Name : Fred Griffiths

Gender : Male

Character Name : Bookie's Clerk

Original Name : Victor Brooks

Gender : Male

Character Name : Minor Role (uncredited)

Original Name : Billy Lawrence

Gender : Male

Reviews

John Chard

@John Chard

2024-05-16

The whole world's gone mad. Stark raving mad. No Trees in the Street is directed by J. Lee Thompson and adapted from his own play by Ted Willis. It stars Sylvia Syms, Herbert Lom, Ronald Howard, Melvyn Hayes and Stanley Holloway. Music is by Laurie Johnson and cinematography by Gilbert Taylor. Capturing a young tearaway, a London copper tells the youngster a story from a couple of decades earlier. It's about a family living in the slums of the East End, of a pretty daughter getting involved with the local racketeer, of the young impressionable son turning to crime, it's of their fates, trials and tribulations. Part kitchen sink plotter, part noir melodrama, No Trees in the Street is thin on story but big on heart. Ted Willis is guilty of not fully pushing the drama through in his adaptation, getting caught between making a potent anti-crime piece and that of a mawkish "we had it tough back then" nostalgia trip. That said, the tale does hold tight throughout, and all the characters are nicely drawn and placed within a depressingly real backdrop. The means, motives and decisions involving some of them are cutting, keeping the narrative edgy, while the cast performances are bang on the money for such a screenplay. Bonus comes with Taylor's (Ice Cold in Alex/Repulsion) photography, which come the second half of film dresses it all up in noir nirvana. 6/10