Director J Lee Thompson had already directed one of my favourite British movies, "The Woman In The Dressing Gown" a couple of years before and would go on to direct Hollywood blockbuster "The Guns Of Navarone" and one of my top 20 all-time movies, the original "Cape Fear", so I had high expectations of this crime-melodrama set in Wales.
Claimed by some as a bridgehead for the British New Wave "kitchen-sink" dramas of the early 60's (the same could also be claimed for "Woman In The Dressing Gown"), this was a fast-moving, well acted and directed contemporary thriller. Probably most famous for introducing the young Hayley Mills to prominence, she's certainly a beguiling presence as tomboy schoolgirl Gillie, who witnesses a crime of passion carried out by a handsome young Polish sailor. She forms a strange attachment to the murderer for what reason isn't made exactly clear - is he a father figure (she lives with her aunt, with no sign of any parents around), make-believe brother or could it even be the first hormonal stirrings of attraction for the opposite sex in the young girl.
Hayley's dad John plays the flat-foot cop on the killer's trail, even though the girl's various lies and misdirections help as much as hinder him. Their scenes together are intuitively played by both and directed with intelligent restraint by Thompson.
Thompson garners further plaudits for his clever use of location shooting, imaginative shot set-ups and drawing fine performances from his cast, in so doing capturing something of the flavour of daily life, particularly of the poor, in late 50's Britain. The story itself may be.a touch hackneyed and the ending overdramatic, but there's no denying the entertainment value here. Interesting to note that in a few short years young Hayley would make a similar splash in a succeeding British film, Bryan Forbes' "Whistle Down The Wind" where she plays another young teenager who puts her misplaced faith in a handsome stranger who's actually a criminal on the run.
I wouldn't say that this is better than "Whistle...", but it's easy to see why the film was a hit in its day and it still entertains more than satisfactorily today.
Claimed by some as a bridgehead for the British New Wave "kitchen-sink" dramas of the early 60's (the same could also be claimed for "Woman In The Dressing Gown"), this was a fast-moving, well acted and directed contemporary thriller. Probably most famous for introducing the young Hayley Mills to prominence, she's certainly a beguiling presence as tomboy schoolgirl Gillie, who witnesses a crime of passion carried out by a handsome young Polish sailor. She forms a strange attachment to the murderer for what reason isn't made exactly clear - is he a father figure (she lives with her aunt, with no sign of any parents around), make-believe brother or could it even be the first hormonal stirrings of attraction for the opposite sex in the young girl.
Hayley's dad John plays the flat-foot cop on the killer's trail, even though the girl's various lies and misdirections help as much as hinder him. Their scenes together are intuitively played by both and directed with intelligent restraint by Thompson.
Thompson garners further plaudits for his clever use of location shooting, imaginative shot set-ups and drawing fine performances from his cast, in so doing capturing something of the flavour of daily life, particularly of the poor, in late 50's Britain. The story itself may be.a touch hackneyed and the ending overdramatic, but there's no denying the entertainment value here. Interesting to note that in a few short years young Hayley would make a similar splash in a succeeding British film, Bryan Forbes' "Whistle Down The Wind" where she plays another young teenager who puts her misplaced faith in a handsome stranger who's actually a criminal on the run.
I wouldn't say that this is better than "Whistle...", but it's easy to see why the film was a hit in its day and it still entertains more than satisfactorily today.