Touching and Suspenseful

stancym

This movie seem quite realistic to me. The girl played by Hayley Mills is not a sickeningly sweet creature, she acts out in a way that a troubled girl of her situation and background WOULD. She is lovable but no goody two shoes. I liked that. What is so touching is that because she is a child, she makes child-like mistakes that ruin her good intentions.

Horst Buchholz also gives a fine performance. Though his usual gorgeous self, he is a bit more grizzled, or do I mean grizzly? than he looked in THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN or the wonderful FANNY, and since he is on the run and never gets to shave in TIGER BAY, I guess that's appropriate.

John Mills is superb, as always. Now there is an actor who didn't need to inject his own ego into every performance, and who cared about great acting more than about fame and stardom. The film never drags, it's an almost flawless movie. The Mills-Buchholz relationship is touching on screen and apparently they got on very well off screen. There are other kinds of love besides romantic love; this is a good example.

score 10/10

stancym 29 November 2005

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1227752/