Review for No Trees in the Street

There’s nothing new under the sun. This hard boiled kitchen-sink melodrama heralds from the 1950’s but features a pre-war East-end, ground down with poverty. Despite the historic setting, it’s not a million miles away from ‘Eastenders’ in theme and tone.

Directed by Oscar nominee J. Lee-Thompson (Guns of Navarone, Battle for the Planet of the Apes) and adapted by Dixon of Dock Green creator Ted Willis from his own play, No Trees in the Street earned BAFTA nominations for Best British Actress for Sylvia Syms and Best British Screenplay for Willis.



Sylvia Syms stars as Hetty, a rose among the thorns; a pretty, gentle girl with moral fiber and a strong head. She lives with her booze loving mother (Joan Miller) and scalawag brother Tommy (lazy-lidded Melvyn Hayes in his first major film role) along with a constant stream of neighbours and visitors, including a blind man and her mum’s drinking companion, an ex-music hall songster now down on his luck and working as a bookmaker’s tout (Stanley Holloway doing a version of the type of role he’d later play in ‘My Fair Lady’).



There is little money and virtually no prospects of ever leaving ‘the street’. Tommy is soon tempted to earn money the easy way by working for a Kray-like local mobster, Wilkie (Herbert Lom) who just happens to be in love with his sister.
However, Hetty is having none of it despite her mother’s protestations. She is determined to make sure that Tommy doesn't get dragged into a life of crime and she plans to leave the street with her brother just as soon as she can figure out a way to do it.



Whilst most the roles are played with the same kind of over the top zeal normally associated with soaps, Sym and Hom manage to turn in equally impressive performances as the potential of a relationship barely simmers below the film’s surface. But even this is not enough to lift what is actually a rather clunky, inauthentic feeling melodrama. It’s all ladled on a bit thick and by the time you hear Lom decree the street a smelly, unlivable mess for the tenth time it does all get a bit wearisome. Ronald Howard (Trevor’s son) delivers a fairly lukewarm performance as the do-good police officer and this doesn’t help matters much.
The transfer, presented here in a brand-new digital transfer from original film elements, in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio, is really first-class. The picture quality, for a DVD of an old film, is really top-notch.



The score is provided by Laurie Johnson , best known for his work on films like Dr. Strangelove and Tiger Bay as well as masses of Cult TV shows like Jason King, The Avengers. The Professionals; Thriller and so on. Fans will enjoy hearing his work on this.



It comes with a trailer, an image gallery and three pieces of promotional material; two for the film and one a programme from the play that it was based on.
Although ‘No Trees on the Street’ is a bit of a soap at heart it certainly has a good cast and it looks really first-class on this edition. It won’t be for everyone but fans of kitchen-sink drama from this period will lap it up.