Love on the Dole – 1941 | 94mins | Drama | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Low budget but convincing drama based on a novel by Walter Greenwood. Set in an industrial Lancashire town, depressing and realistic, the film is an early forerunner of the kitchen sink dramas that followed 20 years later.

Set in pre-World War II Salford, Sally (Deborah Kerr), a mill girl during the Depression, is in love with Larry (Clifford Evans), a militant factory worker who loses his job and refuses to marry Sally on dole money. Leading a demonstration against pay, conditions and unemployment, Larry is wounded in a scuffle with police and later dies. Sally, faced with the moral dilemma of poverty or loveless marriage, gives herself to rich old bookie ‘Honest’ Sam Grundy (Frank Cellier) in the desperate hope that he will give work to her father and brother.