malcp Review of Dulcimer Street

Dulcimer Street (1948)

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making plans

[8/10 · 2 August 2015]

An interesting narrative voyage, which truly defies a neat categorisation. The film points us in several different directions, but is constructed chiefly around the lives of Mr and Mrs Josser and their daughter Doris who live in the ground floor of No 10 Dulcimer Street in London in 1938 -39. Retiring after many years of loyal service at the same company, Mr Josser is looking forward to settling down with his wife in a small cottage in the country. With war on the horizon, convention might dictate that this would become a primary theme, however, like life, this film isn't like that - war does come, but to these ordinary folk, it's only a small part of the scenery. Instead we are given a wonderful tapestry of richly played intertwined vignettes. Some humorous, some dramatic but all of which serve to draw us in. Mr Josser and his family are often incidental to the main point of focus, but isn't that often just how life is!