A young boy dies while playing in the ruins of a London neighbourhood destroyed during the blitz. His friend Frankie (Andrew Ray) – who was with him at the time and blames himself – is blackmailed by a local ne’er-do-well called Len (William Sylvester) and is forced to steal from his parents or be accused of causing his friend’s death.
It will get worse for Frankie before it gets better as Len persuades him to steal for him with the sob story that he needs the money desperately and the boy is the only one who can help.
Frankie responds by trailing around the city at night and watching for opportunities to nick some cash, although what he does end up stealing is a pineapple from the fruit barrow of Sid James.
Len doesn’t have any use for the fruit, but he has an idea that will place the child in danger when he is used as a way into a pub after closing time one night so that Len may rob it.
Needless to say, this ends badly, and the climax sees a murderous Len tracking Frankie through the tunnels of the London Underground.
A typical example of the many dour dramas churned out by postwar British cinema. Exploiting the period’s austere atmosphere and run-down landscapes, it owes much to such Hollywood “child in peril” pictures as The Window.
In his second film as writer/director, J Lee Thompson would have done better to focus on the relationship between timid Frankie and fugitive killer Len, but he can’t resist throwing in a social message and a family crisis that slows the action and dilutes the suspense.
Kenneth More flops as the doting dad, but Kathleen Ryan makes a monstrously shrewish mother.
Frankie Palmer Andrew Ray Emily Palmer
Kathleen Ryan Ted Palmer
Kenneth More Len Turner
William Sylvester Constable Chapman
Bernard Lee Sunday School Teacher
Veronica Hurst Mary
Hy Hazell Iris
Sandra Dorne Potter
Campbell Singer Charlie
Sidney James Mrs Jessie Stokes
Marjorie Rhodes Pawnbroker Eliot Makeham Sid the spiv
Peter Jones Ron
Stephen Fenemore
Frankie Palmer
