When ship's fireman Peter McCabe walks out on his long-suffering wife, he leaves her impoverished, with two young daughters and a boy born soon after his departure. After an absence of fourteen years McCabe returns, sacked and humiliated, trailing trouble in his wake.
Acting
Kathleen Harrison carries the whole film on her exhausted shoulders.
Production
Liverpool docks shot on location—smell the coal smoke through the screen.
Director
Michael Anderson
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Richard Burton was paid £100 for this, his first film role. He'd command $1 million per film within two decades.
This rare British 'waterfront noir' predates the angrier kitchen sink realism of the 1960s by a full decade.
GB
