Once a Sinner

Plot

Bank clerk John Ross (Jack Watling) falls for good-time girl Irene (Pat Kirkwood), and, although at first she tries to discourage him, they are quickly married. They soon find that Irene does not get along with John's middle class parents and friends, and when he finally insists on meeting Irene's mother he is taken aback by her hostility towards her own daughter, but he learns that Irene has a child by her former lover, Jimmy (Sidney Tafler). When John tells her it's over between them, Irene reluctantly goes back to Jimmy and they move to London. A few weeks later, when John's father gives him his letters from Irene which his mother had tried to hide from him, John realises he still wants Irene and he sets off to find her. When he arrives, he eventually persuades Irene to go with him and they decide they will try to make a life together in a new place, away from his disapproving family and friends. However, on the train, they have a fateful encounter.

Cast

Critical reception

Allmovie wrote, "The magnificent Thora Hird steals the show in Once a Sinner as the fickle Irene's slatternly [sic] mother."