Poor Cow
Ken Loach
Joy is married to small time thief Tom, and they have a son together. When Tom gets arrested, she meets his accomplice, Dave, with whom she has an affair. Dave is soon sent back into prison. Joy is alone again.
With : Carol White, Terence Stamp, John Bindon, Billy Murray, Queenie Watts, Kate Williams
Screenplay : Nell Dunn, Ken Loach
Image : Brian Probyn
Editing : Roy Watts
Music : Donovan
Screenplay : Nell Dunn, Ken Loach
Image : Brian Probyn
Editing : Roy Watts
Music : Donovan
Production : Vic Films Productions, Fenchurch, The National Film Finance Corp.
Distribution: Tamasa Distribution
Distribution: Tamasa Distribution
Ken Loach's first feature stars Carol White, who had the title role in his television play Cathy Come Home, as a young working-class mother living in London who gets involved in a number of tumultuous relationships, often with criminals. Despite living in abject poverty and being abused by her lovers, Joy doesn't let it get her down. Unusually for Loach, he uses techniques that distance the audience from the action, such as Joy's voice-over and intertitles that are more reminiscent of the silent era. For the first time, he cast a well-known star, Terence Stamp, even though he would continue to use non-professionals in later films. The film was not one of his greatest critical successes, but Poor Cow shows that Loach's concerns about the way society treats the working class were there right at the start of his film career. Scenes from Poor Cow showing a young Terence Stamp were used in the flashback sequences of Steven Soderbergh's The Limey (1999).