Moon Over the Alley, The (1976)

This strange London-set musical reunited Duffer director Joseph Despins and writer William Dumaresq with composer Galt MacDermot.

Set in 1975, the film explored the problems facing the multicultural residents in a Notting Hill boarding house destined for demolition. Concrete tower blocks are rising in the background, threatening to take away the life and character of the area.

The camera pans over the main characters briefly, eventually coming back to each one to tell their story in varying degrees: The homeless couple sleeping rough in the backstreets and making money singing at the market; the German landlady squeezing the boarders into her house and sending the man from the council (who wants to talk compulsory purchase) packing; the man at the corner shop; his daughter and the son of the landlady as teenage sweethearts; the local pub and the menacing gang of teenagers hanging around the street corners. All have a tale – some even have a song.

The homeless couple are robbed of the few things they have; the Irish tenant discovers his fiancée is working in a sex club to earn them enough money for a house; the young sweethearts walk down the wrong street at the wrong time, and the old man with an eye for young girls is targeted by the teenage gang.

And to top it all off, the day of reckoning with the council is approaching.

Jack MacMahon
Sean Caffrey
Mr Deray
Basil Clarke
Katie
Debbie Evans
Akki
Peter Farrell
Sybil
Doris Fishwick
Belinda
Sharon Forester
Bert Gusset
John Gay
Bertha Gusset
Erna May
Ronnie Gusset
Patrick Murray
Ethel Tudge
Joan Geary
Joe Tudge
Norman Mitchell
Nellie Tudge
Lesley Roach
Jim
Leroy Hyde
Hippy
Miguel Sergides

Director
Joseph Despins