Innocent Sinners (1958)

A young girl, Lovejoy (June Archer), lives with her mother in London, but is lonely and her mother is distracted by gentleman friends and the attention they give her. They are very poor, and Lovejoy needs new shoes, but her mother cannot afford them. She has kind neighbors, the Vincents, who run a restaurant and let her sleep on their couch when her mother has a gentleman caller. She begins to make a garden, but local boys ruin it. An older boy, Tip (Christopher Hey), tells her she can make a garden that the local boys won't ruin--in a bombed-out church. He reluctantly helps her. She tells him that she bought her garden equipment with money she stole from the church and he makes her pay double back and helps her to earn the money. She gets soil and pansies to plant, and the developer gives her a small rose. When stealing soil from a gardening group, Tip is caught by the Police helping her escape, the Police Officer stands up for them, however, Tip is still charged with assault, but he gets off. Olivia Chesney (Dame Flora Robson), who is part of the gardening group, has empathy for Lovejoy. A developer is intending to rebuild the church and visits several times with his fiancée. They visit the Vincents' restaurant and are served strawberries on expensive plates that cost 20 pounds sterling--which were bought on the never-never. The Vincents buy a refrigerator on hire-purchase, too. Lovejoy's neighbors receive a letter from her mother, stating that she has moved to Canada and not to bother trying to find her. The letter says nothing about Lovejoy, and Mrs. Vincent (Barbara Mullen) goes to the Police, and the court decides she has to go into a children's home. When Lovejoy is told, she runs away to speak to Tip, and she asks Olivia to escort her, when his mum says she can come back and speak, but only if she has an adult with her. She is upset, because when she goes into a home she won't be able to see her pansies and rose, and Tip tells her the developer will demolish it all anyway. She throws a brick and smashes a Madonna statue by accident. Olivia takes ill in the bombed-out church and bequeaths her money to the Vincents, as long as they care for Lovejoy--which they wanted to, but weren't considered financially stable enough. Lovejoy goes into the home and Olivia's sister Angela (Catherine Lacey) says some cruel things to her when she asks if there are any flowers in the home. She sees a Madonna in the chapel in the home and leaving tuppence, prays that Mary keeps her "cocky and independent". When the church is demolished, she escapes and runs to get her rose, Tip has already saved it for her, but she can't keep it. Olivia dies--before she could sign her will, meaning that it isn't binding, and all of her money goes to Angela. Lovejoy takes her rose to Olivia, not knowing she has died and leaves it with the housekeeper who takes it to Angela, who is overcome. She sticks to Olivia's will and Lovejoy moves in with the Vincents and they get a new refrigerator after their other one is repossessed.