While British director Alexander Mackendrick completed less than ten features in his career, nearly half are indelible. (WHISKEY GALORE!/’49; THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT/’51; THE LADYKILLERS/’55; SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS/’57.) Good stuff in his other films, too, including ones he left for some reason during production. This one, a boy’s own adventure (though it’s much more than that) probably best of the others he did finish. Fergus McClelland debuts as a suddenly orphaned 10-yr-old boy in Port Said, a stunningly well-realized set piece right at the top as an air raid opens hostilities in the 1956 Egyptian Suez Canal crisis. The boy, blond of hair/blue of eye, stands out everywhere other than his just destroyed British apartment block, now guided only by the knowledge that his Aunt Jane runs a guest house/hotel in South Africa, a mere 5000 miles south. His only path a series of close escapes from would-be helpers, reward hunters, local gangs out for vengeance on any European, police & military search parties, all entirely believable in Mackendrick’s hands as the boy walks or catches rides till he eventually stumbles into the orbit of illegal diamond trader Edward G. Robinson living in a jungle colony of his own making about 500 miles south of Port Said. (The film set in the ‘50s & made in the’60s, and with attitudes of those times: wild game not off limit/Robinson very much the Great White Father figure, means Family Viewing will need escorting.) Robinson, quickly trusted by the boy, largely because he doesn’t pander and takes him seriously, soon has him under his wing as pupil and surrogate grandson. (NOTE: Robinson suffered a heart attack in the middle of production, which likely accounts for some of his process work. Most exteriors made on location, the film very well shot by Erwin Hillier.) This camp refuge may even beat finding Aunt Jane. But story dictates a crisis, and once Robinson’s lair is found out, the story goes into overdrive to find a satisfying wrap. And they pretty much do. The film, not particularly well received critically or commercially, well deserves a fresh look.* So too young Fergus, a stoic trooper who refuses to cuddle into our hearts, and earns our respect all the more for it. The film, went thru too many edits (including in the States where it was released with forty minutes missing as A BOY TEN FEET TALL), look for a cut running about 2'.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Mackendrick’s other child’s own adventure film, A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA/’65 may be the better story, but never finds its groove. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2017/06/a-high-wind-in-jamaica-1965.html
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *But it was the year's Royal Film Performance! (see poster)
No comments:
Post a Comment