The Fifteen Streets (1989)

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This is a magnificent piece of work. It's human. It's happy. It's sad. It's tragic. It's an improbable love story set in the grim world of the Newcastle England docks around the turn of the twentieth century. I'm not familiar with the author of the book. But I recognize dedicated, creative film work. We have plenty of that here! This is a film made by people who love making movies. It shows in every frame. The characters are strong and they're real. The grim atmosphere of the brick and concrete tenement district has been caught accurately, both its human and inhuman dimensions. Yet there are many warm and charming scenes among those that are bleak or tragic. The subdued colour, the rain and the snow at times, probably are more effective than black and white would have been. I would have given it a 10 save for two things. The ending is a little silly. And, surprising in a film which is is so historically accurate, one of the shots at the dock shows a modern overhead crane. But it's a keeper and one of those stimulating films that trigger interesting discussions and arguments.

A very violent film in thought word and deed - indeed it starts with a brawl between the O'Brien brothers - and set in extremely austere and miserable surroundings. Add a continuously grey sky, damp wet streets and generally sordid surroundings and you are fast on the way to a recipe for instant suicide ! In spite of all this violence, poverty and austerity, there remains one glimmer of hope - the nascent love between one of the O'Brien brothers and the schoolmistress daughter of a local wealthy shipbuilder who is married to Billie Whitelaw - whose face has always scared the pants off me since I saw her in "Omen I". The misery is further compounded by a boating accident in which the cute little sister loses her life together with the grand-daughter of a new preacher neighbour and the person responsible for the accident is deemed to be the other O'Brien brother portrayed by the actor Sean Bean ( who also sports a mean countenance at the best of times ). So basically, in this whole awful quagmire, the only slender straw that the desperate spectator can clutch on is that which relays the love between our two turtle doves ! The film is extremely well acted but I was obliged to turn my head the other way during some of the violent scenes - it's as bad as that. If you enjoy this sort of stuff, you will have a field day, if not you watch this film at your own risk and peril !

Catherine Cookson is a great writer but she has not been well served by Tyne Tees who made this TV film from the book of the same name. I think I read the book once but you get used to this sort of thing in a film adaption,that vast chunks are omitted . In this one a couple of kids are drowned in a boat and there's hardly a mention, The ending is totally stupid and unreal. Maybe this is Catherine Cookson's poorest story as there's little drama anywhere.Just a lot of people arguing about nothing much at all other than a lack of money and some rather silly reasons for scrapping. The 15 streets are supposed to be the divide between the rich and the poor,a common enough theme in Catherine Cookson

A superbly balanced cast portray a story of love and loss in northern England. Excellent period piece that conveys the atmosphere of a rugged pre-war industrial town. Passions run high as love tries to cross the class divide. Performance which particularly stands out is that of a young Jane Horrocks.