Breakthrough Debut
Although quite familiar with nearly every scene and plot twist, it was interesting to view Tiger Bay as a grownup. It's an adult movie about a child's emerging sense of morality. Initially, Gillie is all about telling lies just to get her way (a toy bomb, an extra shilling, an hour of independence) and then gradually (you can actually perceive the wheels turning in her head) she realizes that lies can also serve to protect a loved one. The film is very good, but it's really all about Hayley Mills; she's fairly astonishing. She doesn't just steal the movie by being cute; she carefully delivers a thoughtful performance. Her character grows by learning to care for someone (breaking in new, unselfish emotions), developing her own standards for right and wrong, and experiencing raw heartbreak. The interrogation scenes where she spontaneously calculates her responses while barely concealing that everything's a lie - they're so realistic, they're genius.Remember that scene in the church loft? It starts out agonizingly suspenseful and scary; if you'd never seen the film before , you'd wonder, is she going to accidentally wound him? end up controlling him? Is he going to keep chasing after her, eventually kidnap her? And then gradually, through brief exchanges, they recognize that they are kindred souls - misfits, lonely, misunderstood, unappreciated. Within minutes, the scene has mellowed into this moment where they look at each other over a burning candle and spontaneously grin at each other.
You can also glimpse and interject an interesting back story for Gillie: she's an orphan living with her aunt, Mrs. Phillips. So where's Mr. Phillips? Killed in WWII? They don't say. Gillie is obviously a recent transplant (a kid yells "go back to London!" at the beginning), she's apparently an orphan, and she's growing up neglected in this Cardiff tenement where bitter war-torn grownups are barely hanging on to their lives. You perceive these details as an adult, and they add new layers.
Apparently Hayley got a lot of international attention after this movie, and not just from Disney. Certainly director J. Lee Thompson The Guns of Navarone)had much to do with coaxing Hayley's performance, but the talent and charisma are all hers.
score 10/10
brkeys 15 August 2006
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1449039/34959
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