Produced in 1965 for the BBC's "Wednesday Play" series, Ken Loach's Cathy Come Home is a powerful indictment of the housing bureaucracy that existed in Britain at that time. An uneasy mix of documentary-style filmmaking (including much footage of homeless families and voice-overs from people in various positions in the housing hierarchy) and fiction, the film transcends its essential didacticism because it's also a moving and well-acted drama about two very fallible human beings who find themselves in a disastrous situation. Carol White is superb as Cathy, giving a raw-edged performance as a woman who runs into some bad luck, and whose temper and questionable judgment exacerbate her problems. Cathy is a precursor of Crissy Rock's Maggie Conlan character in Loach's equally worthwhile (but even more caustically unflinching) Ladybird, Ladybird. Cathy and her husband, Reg (Ray Brooks), are basically an average, lower middle-class couple. They're not saints, and they're ill-equipped to deal with the blows life deals them, but they don't do anything to deserve the horrendous treatment they get at the hands of landlords and the public housing system. Loach's deceptively simple, profoundly influential film has achieved legendary status in Britain, where the British Film Institute chose it as the second favorite television program of all time in 2000.
by Josh Ralske
review
