The Bells Go Down

The Bells Go Down is a black amp white wartime film made by Ealing Studios in 1943. The reference in the title is to the alarm bells in the fire station that go down when a call to respond is made. The film is an ensemble piece that covers the period betweenAugust 1939, andSeptember 1940, when World War II began and London was subjected to aerial bombing, and is a tribute to the solidarity of not just those engaged in service, but among the British people as a whole.

OnSeptember 1939, at the start of World War II, several East End Londoners join the London County Council Auxiliary Fire Service. Tommy Turk Trinder is a lighthearted gambler who avoids work, living with his mother Varley who runs a local fish and chips shop. Tommy has bought a greyhound pup he names Short Head and hopes to race. Bob Matthews Friend is a newcomer to the East End who just lost his job and has to postpone his wedding to Nan Harper Hiatt as a result. Tommy and Bob meet in The Hopvine, a pub run by Ma and Pa Robbins Muriel George and Pierce, whose son Ted Mason is a fireman with the London Fire Brigade. Teds girl Susie has just joined the brigade as a dispatcher, but Ma Robbins cannot hide her thinly disguised disapproval of Susies love of dance halls. The Army wont accept new enlistments, so Tommy persuades Bob to join the AFS with him. Sam, a smalltime thief of Guinness, inadvertently joins the service trying to avoid the clutches of Eastchapel Police Constable OBrien Richard George, who dogs him with the persistence of Javert. The three are assigned immediately to the Q substation of the East Ends District 21, set up in a school to train under Ted.Q sub responds to its first call at Christmas. Although the fire is out when they arrive, crusty District Officer MacFarlane Currie is impressed with Teds efforts and posts him, along with Tommy, Sam, and Bob, as a crew at District 21s superintendents station. Nan and Bob finally marry and take a flat near Benjamins Wharf. She becomes pregnant, suffering fainting spells, and befriends Ma Turk. Ted is reluctant to marry, so Susie goes dancing with ladies man Tommy as a means of making Ted jealous, while Ted rides Tommy for his apparent aversion to fighting fires. Tommy races Short Head, who perpetually loses, costing not just Tommy, but his fellow firemen who have wagered on her. Tommy continues to steal barrels of Guinness, but OBrien begins to close in. ........

Source: Wikipedia