Crows and Sparrows

An unsung classic made in Shanghai as the KMT prepared to flee to Taiwan and the communist army approached the city - events which the film daringly uses as cornerstones of its narrative. The downtrodden tenants in a Shanghai boarding house (a teacher, a pedlar and a newspaper sub-editor, the latter the real owner of the building) face eviction when their 'landlord', the KMT official who seized the premises, announces that he is selling up and moving to Taiwan. Amid rising crime and social panic, the 'little people' realise that they can stand up to tyranny by banding together. Thanks to terrific ensemble work from the cast and a talented director who keeps his foot off the 'melodrama' pedal, this is very different from the propaganda vehicles which all concerned found themselves making a few years later. The best of all Peak Film Industries productions of the late 1940s - which is saying a lot.