The Scamp – 1957 | 87 mins | Drama | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Absorbing drama starring Richard Attenborough as a teacher who befriends a 10-year-old boy neglected by his drunken father. The shaky direction and a cliché-ridden script from Wolf Rilla undermine any possibility of this well meaning human interest story developing convincingly. Attenborough gives a decent enough performance; his subtle underplaying nicely counterbalances the enthusiasm of young star Colin Petersen. Petersen gives an energetic performance as the young delinquent.

Schoolmaster Stephen Leigh (Richard Attenborough) and his doctor wife Barbara (Dorothy Alison) befriend winsome ten-year-old street urchin Tod Dawson (Colin Petersen) after a chance encounter in a tobacconists. Tod is being neglected by his hard-drinking music-hall actor father Mike (Terence Morgan) back in England after a decade in Australia. Leigh contrives to take Tod into his temporary care when Mike decides to move to South America, much to the consternation of Leigh’s wife to whom the boy presence seems a constant reminder of their own childless marriage. Leigh’s liberal benevolence towards the child ultimately fails and when forced to thrash the boy for a minor theft, Tod once again gets into trouble with the police.

In juvenile court, Tod’s now returned father declares to the panel that if his son is returned into his custody the delinquency will be put to an end. And consequently the young boy returns to live with Mike and his new wife at the King’s Arms public house. His home life once again becomes wretched, and in a moment of self-defence, Tod knocks his drunken father over the head. Thinking his dad has been killed, the boy runs to the protection of Leigh.