DB7

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DB7

I really enjoyed watching it once more. The real winner for me is the location shooting from the blitz-damaged streets of London (Crichton did seem to enjoy shooting in the capital) to the wind swept Northern moors, also the frenetic pacing makes up for a 'chase' plot reminiscent of The 39 Steps that is largely without major incident. The only moment of real danger and excitement is as Whiteley follows Bogarde in jumping from the bridge onto a moving train. Bogarde certainly isn't required to exert himself acting wise and Whiteley Is understandably wet behind the ears in his film debut - the pair would create a far better rapport a few years later in The Spanish Gardener. But it's an engrossing film with a degree of charm that rattles along at a fair old spit; thankfully remaining just the right side of sentimental.

Harbottle

I can only echo DB7’s comments I enjoyed this film a lot and thought the location scenes were excellent, I particularly liked the Stoke location with the workers off to the factories, reminiscent of one of those Lowry paintings. Bogarde gave a good performance as did the lad Whitely, which managed to avoid cloying sentimentality. Nice scene at the end with the trawler being pursued by the seagulls.

Billy Liar

I think it was to show his transition from a desperate murderer on the run, to an almost father figure for the boy(whilst still on the run) I must admit though the boys resilience was more than admirable. I'll also add my voice to those championing the cinematography and choice of locale.

I thought the movie itself was very good, if a little predictable narrative wise. The interaction between Bogarde and boy was endearing to say the least, at times one suspects that the laughter Bogarde emitted was genuine. Some of the acting by other cast members I felt was a little theatrical and wooden in direct comparison. On a final note was I the only one who enjoyed the way the boy looked into the camera on numerous occasions?

mysteriesofedgarwallace

At last! I've watched it!

Brought back some memories, I've not seen it for years.
As a late watcher/poster; my comments are pretty much in-line with the others here.
I just cannot understand why Bogarde took the boy with him.
After all, the boy didn't see the dead body or Bogarde kill the man.

All in all, a little contrived, but an excellent film, fabulous use of locations

smudge

Just made it under the wire and watched the film this morning...

I'll go with the earlier comments regarding good use of locations and similarity to the original 'pursuit to the north' in THE 39 STEPS.

This could have been simply a routine little film but Crichton managed to raise it a notch above that. In the beginning he uses some very ordinary strokes to ratchet up the tension without becoming contrived. Some nice touches ; here I must mention DP Eric Cross' nice shadowplay lighting in the night time sequence in the city - the copper's match flaring up in the doorway and the climbing shadows on the staircase wall as they come to investigate. Similarly a nice bit of shadow on the screen with the telephone call in the pawnbroker's shop.

Also in that sequence, the excellent use of near silence...

Another nice touch I thought, was when Kay Walsh beckons Frederick Piper into the kitchen, just as the radio news was talking about Lloyd and you were expecting the moment of revelation about their mysterious guests. However, this doesn't come till the next morning with the arrival of the paper, thus breaking the expected cycle.

Bogarde himself was at times in full BLUE LAMP mode (note when he's shouting to Robbie to get back on the train lines ; virtually the same delivery as at the end of LAMP) and his 'Mockney' accent went up and down a bit, but he did work a little ; note the easy switch into guilt when telling the child the bedtime story. The usual solid performance from Geoffrey Keen as the flatfoot and the lovely Elisabeth Sellars was doing her very best to smoulder in the bedroom scene...

As to why Lloyd takes the boy with him in the first place, I can only surmise that the boy stumbled in on him immediately the deed was done and was taken away during Lloyd's moments of blind terror/realisation. In fact I think Bogarde did that pretty well ; he was taut from the start and the character's relief (and his confusion over what to do with Robbie) was almost palpable when he and the boy got down in the hold of the barge and he had chance to light up that first cigarette after the incident.

I must say that watching the film again after a very long time, and focusing on it particularly, I did find young Master Whiteley's occasional glances off camera to receive direction somewhat distracting - particularly in the lodging house scenes with those forced yawns....

But all in all, not that bad.

Oh yes - is it me or was there a jovial tip of the hat to Hitch ? I could swear that there was a sign on the door of the Scottish shop for Mazawatee Tea, a la LADY VANISHES...

SMUDGE

Welcome to my house. Enter freely, and of your own will...

darrenburnfan

From the opening scenes of Hunted, directly after the credits, when the dramatic music accompanies a little boy running through the streets of London clutching a teddy bear, we just know this is going to be a great film and it certainly is. Filmed in England and Scotland in late 1951 and released early in 1952, this truly is a wonderful film. The boy is six years old orphaned Scots boy Robbie Campbell (a truly outstanding debut performance by six years old Scots boy Jon Whiteley), who is running and searching for somewhere to hide after accidentally setting the kitchen curtains on fire in his adoptive London home and, believing he has set the house on fire, is fleeing the severe punishment that he believes will be meted out to him by his cruel and violent adoptive father. He ends up running into a derelict building on a bomb site some distance from home where he accidentally comes upon a man, Chris Lloyd (Dirk Bogarde), having just murdered his wife’s lover in a crime of passion. Seeing that Robbie is the only witness to his crime, Chris abducts him and takes him on the run with him as he attempts to flee the country and the long arm of the law. Robbie, unloved at home and cruelly treated by his adoptive father, dare not return home and a bond develops between the two fugitives as Robbie flees his adoptive father and Chris flees the police and the hangman’s rope.

Robbie becomes devoted to Chris and needs no persuading to follow him anywhere, obviously seeing him as a father figure. Chris is at first completely uncaring and rough in his attitude to Robbie, but he gradually takes on the responsibility for Robbie's devotion as the two flee from London and travel up through the midlands to Stoke-on-Trent and then north into Scotland. As the journey gets tougher, Chris has to force Robbie to keep going, to carry him in his arms and to hold him, against the cold, as they sleep out in the wilderness.

I won’t spoil the ending for anyone who hasn’t seen it, but you will really enjoy this British gem from start to finish. It really is a superbly made drama, one of the first “road” movies and I read somewhere that, of all the many Rank films that Dirk Bogarde made during his long career, this was his personal favourite. It is also, like many parts of The Blue Lamp, a filmic record of a bygone post-war Britain; from its bomb sites and tramcars and horse drawn wagons in the capital, to the now long gone pottery factories of Stoke on Trent, belching forth their black smoke from huge bottle ovens and covered with industrial grime. The railway scenes in the film were filmed on the equally now long gone Potteries Loop Line at Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, one of hundreds of lines that fell under the Dr Beeching axe in the 1960’s. Today, all that remains of this once very busy railway is a short stretch between Cobridge and Burslem that has been turned into a landscaped greenway for use by cyclists and walkers. So, 58 years later in 2009, there is nothing left, save memories, of this location with its sidings and wagons and steam engines and bridges captured for posterity on 35mm black and white film in Hunted.

By chance, one of the scenes (the lodging house in Stoke) was filmed in Oxford Street, Penkhull, only twenty-five yards from my present address. The scenes filmed in the Scottish wilderness (actually Dumfries and Galloway) probably have changed little if at all in the intervening years and, no doubt, the harbour of Portpatrick in western Scotland, where the final scenes were filmed, has also changed very little.

The film is also a social record of the UK in 1951, a time of general poverty; of post-war austerity and ration books, when everybody dresses so drably. The police in the film may, by modern standards, seem to be having great difficulty in tracking down Chris and Robbie. But you have to take into account the fact that in those days, television was in its infancy; the police had no personal radio communications or computers or helicopters and the pace of life was very different. In real life 1951, a man on the run could quite easily abduct a little boy and take him all over the country with him without being apprehended. So this film then is a contemporary account of how things would have been back in 1951.

Today, in an increasingly paranoid age when, in the minds of many, man abducting little boy equals sex, this film is from a time when characters in films apparently didn’t even think of such things. This mindset is no better demonstrated than by one of the police officials in the film who confesses to a colleague that he can’t understand what Chris Lloyd wants with the boy. “Why does he hang on to him?” These days, the police would probably put two and two together and make five. However, the story is far more complicated than it would seem at first glance. For the film is not really as much about child abduction as it is about two people of very different ages teaming up in a common cause…neither of them can go home again and all they have is each other.

Early on in the film, before the loving relationship between Chris and Robbie develops, Chris says to the boy: “You don’t like me, do you?” “No”, says Robbie. “Well, why don’t you go off home, then?” asks Chris. “I don’t want to go home”, answers Robbie. As soon as Robbie gets over the initial shock of being dragged off by Chris at the beginning of the film, he comes to realise that from now on, his only future is with his co-fugitive. At only six and a half years of age, Jon Whiteley is perfect for this film and comes across variously as scared; devious; furtive and, for a short time, happy to be with Chris and away from his abusive home. His sheer delight at seeing men haymaking in a field during the long journey north has to be seen to be believed. Dirk and Jon got on so well together that when the filming finished and they had to part, Jon was reportedly inconsolable. Dirk wanted to adopt the boy, but his friends persuaded him against it.

However, the filming must at first have been traumatic for Jon. The early scenes called for Dirk to be very rough with Jon and to grab him and shake him violently and shout and scream at him at the top of his voice. Jon burst into tears, believing that his new found friend whom he idolised had suddenly and inexplicably turned against him. Dirk took Jon to one side, consoled him and explained that it was only acting and he wasn’t really angry with him. After that, Jon entered into the spirit of the film and put everything he had into it and the result shows on the screen. The chemistry between Dirk and Jon is plain to see and what a team they make.

The film has a meaning for me, because, when I was six years old in 1953, shortly after the release of Hunted, I was abducted and led off by a man while I was playing in a derelict building by the now long gone railway at Cheadle Heath, Stockport (another casualty of the Beeching cuts). Of course, the man abducted me for far different reasons. He hadn’t murdered anyone (at least, not that I knew of) and he didn’t take me on a long journey to Scotland. But the same things are there. A derelict building; a six years old boy; a man abducting him and a railway. I, as a six year old, am also there in Jon and I can identify with him. The tousled fair hair; the drab clothing; the gray, short trousers; the look of furtiveness as I search for somewhere to hide (although not because I’d set the kitchen curtains on fire). This film is an absolute classic. Beautifully acted; directed and photographed. One of the best British films of the 1950’s. 10 out of 10 for this black and white gem. Someone has uploaded the entire film on YouTube. Here below are the first ten minutes.

marker

Looks like a great film and a lot of great background, I can remember playing on bomb sites at the same time this film was made, has anyone a good copy on dvd they could let me have or advise where I can buy it

Cheers Marker..... Black and White 405 Line TV Lives on

darrenburnfan

I have it on an earlier DVD that also includes the original trailer. At present, it's only available as part of the Dirk Bogarde Screen Icons box set from Optimum, available from amazon uk and all the usual suspects. The Optimum DVD doesn't have the trailer on it.

marker

Hi many thanks on info I did look on the net but did not find it for sale off to see what the box set looks like cheers

Cheers Marker..... Black and White 405 Line TV Lives on

darrenburnfan

Well, he didn't see Chris murder the man, but he definitely looked down and saw the man's body and promptly dropped his teddy bear with shock. I think Chris dragged Robbie off through panic, more than anything else.

billy bentley

Thanks for a very heartfelt post darrenburnfan. In 1960's East London there was still plenty of World War II wreckage to play on, probably a combination of bomb sites and enforced demolition of hazardous structures. sadly, I think some of the prefabs round the back of Bethnal Green, built as temporary housing after "the war" are still there and still inhabited. There might be three or four generations grown up in them ?

darrenburnfan

Thanks for your comment on my post, Billy. Hunted was made at just the right time and looks perfect in 4 x 3 black and white. If it had been made a few years later, it would probably have been filmed in colour and even CinemaScope, which would have killed it. Like many classic films of that period, it works best in 4 x 3 black and white. Those post-war prefabs were only meant to last ten years and as you say, some are still there, over sixty years later.

darrenburnfan

Picturegoer, March 15th, 1952.

Exciting man-hunt. It’s held together almost entirely by Dirk Bogarde and a six-year-old, Jon Whiteley, who does exceedingly well in his first screen appearance and is likely to win the affection of all women picturegoers. Bogarde is a man wanted for murder; Whiteley is the lad who tags on to him and hinders his getaway.

The lad has accidentally set fire to his foster parents’ home and, fearful of what’s in store for him, runs away. He finds a body and is then taken captive by the murderer to ensure that he doesn’t run to the police. As the two from place to place, the murderer’s affection for the boy increases.

The plot covers a lot of ground. It starts in London and moves up country to Scotland, where the fugitive tries to escape by trawler. The near escapes and hardships are all tense and effective and the film never descends to becoming maudlin in its sentiment. The police could have been more astute, but that fact does not detract from the entertainment value.

Elizabeth Sellars shows to advantage in the small part of the murderer’s unfaithful wife and Kay Walsh is good as the landlady of a boarding house where the fugitives seek shelter. L.C.

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Picture Show, March 22nd, 1952.

Unusual and thrilling melodrama of a man on the run, detailing an exciting chase which begins in the bomb ruins of London and travels to the Scottish border. Dirk Bogarde is excellent as the wanted man, who’s flight is encumbered by a small, runaway orphan, a witness he fears to leave behind.

How a deep affection grows between the two is most convincingly and touchingly revealed. Little Jon Whiteley will enchant you. Magnificently photographed and directed with suspense, it is gripping, tender and colourful.

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Evening Standard, March, 1952.

The one feature of Hunted that saves it from the trite is the presence of a six-year-old Scottish lad named Jon Whiteley…the slow development of the affection and loyalty that springs up between these two hunted creatures is admirably achieved by director Charles Chrichton. Dirk Bogarde maintains a credible air of baffled apprehension throughout the film, while Elizabeth Sellars and Kay Walsh make brief but telling intrusions into a thoroughly masculine script.

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C. A. Lejeune in The Observer.

The discipline involved in playing with and to a child seems to have found new reserves of strength in Dirk Bogarde’s acting.

Nobody ends like they started out.

darrenburnfan

On location for HUNTED in 1951.

ABOVE: Dirk Bogarde, with a needle and thread, appears to be mending a hole in Jon Whiteley's short trousers between takes at St Katharine's Dock in London.



ABOVE: Jon shows Dirk how to draw while resting between takes in the wilds of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.



ABOVE: Jon and Dirk share a very happy moment together between takes while filming in Dumfries and Galloway.



ABOVE: Charles Crichton directs Jon before filming a scene at Portpatrick harbour in western Scotland.



ABOVE: Dirk and Jon have tea together in the garden of Dirk's country house.

Nobody ends like they started out.