Poor Cow

Carol White - Joy
Terence Stamp - Dave
John Bindon - Tom
Queenie Watts - Aunt Emm
Kate Williams - Beryl
Rose Hillier - Customer at Hairdresser
George Tovey - Photographer
Gerald Young - Judge
Malcolm McDowell - Billy

Ken Loach's first attempt to bring the social concerns and uncompromising style of his TV work - Up The Junction and Cathy Come Home - to the big screen.

The result is an unrelenting picture of sordid South London life, Joy (Carol White) is the poor cow married to bullying crook Tom (John Bindon), and when he is sent to jail, getting into a hopeless tangle with equally dodgy Dave (Terence Stamp, his scenes from this were lifted for Steven Soderbergh's The Limey). Dave does appear to offer Joy and her child some form of happiness until he also ends up in prison. Joy begins divorce proceedings against her husband, but when he is released she attempts to revive their marriage for the benefit of their son. This is probably Loach's least characteristic film. There are moments – Joy posing topless for seedy old photographers or making love in the hay which wouldn't look out of place in a sex comedy. The Donovan music is also incongruous. The commitment is undeniable, but it's a gruelling experience: Loach's next, Kes, was so much better for the humour.