The Child and the Killer : Plot, Cast, Critical reception Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Child and the Killer

1959 British film by Max Varnel

Brian Clemens
Eldon Howard

Produced by

Edward J. Danziger
Harry Lee Danziger

Starring

Patricia Driscoll
Robert Arden
Ryck Rydon
Richard Williams

CinematographyJames Wilson (as Jimmy Wilson)Edited byMaurice RootesMusic byAlbert Elms

Production
company

Danziger Productions

Distributed byUnited Artists Corporation (UK)

Release date

February 1959 (1959-02) (UK)

Running time

65 minutesCountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglish

The Child and the Killer (also known as The Man in the Shadows^[1]) is a 1959 British low budget second feature^[2] crime film directed by Max Varnel and starring Patricia Driscoll and Robert Arden.^[3]

Plot

Joe, a US army officer, is on the run after committing murder. He invades the home of the widowed Peggy, and orders her son Tommy at gunpoint to guide him through the backwaters of the English countryside to safety. But he reckons without U.S. army Captain Mather, who is in love with Tommy's mother.

Cast

Patricia Driscoll as Peggy
Robert Arden as Joe
Richard Williams as Tommy
Ryck Rydon as Mather
John McLaren as Major Finch
Robert Raglan as Inspector
Gary Thorne as prior
Gordon Sterne as Sergeant
Frank Ellement as White

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Although this highly concentrated, small budget thriller is weak in dialogue and over-generous in dramatic licence, it is convincingly enough acted, particularly by Richard Williams as the boy. When the search gets under way and dialogue is at a minimum, Max Varnel's direction becomes more forceful and the tension of the last scenes is quite effectively held."^[4]

TV Guide called it a "routine crime melodrama".^[5]

AllMovie thought the film had "elements in common with the much-later Kevin Costner vehicle A Perfect World [1993]".^[6]

References

^ "The Child and the Killer". FilmAffinity.
^ Chibnall, Steve; McFarlane, Brian (2009). The British 'B' Film. London: BFI/Bloomsbury. p. 401. ISBN 978-1-8445-7319-6.
^ "The Child and the Killer". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
^ "The Child and the Killer". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 26 (300): 45. 1 January 1959 – via ProQuest.
^ "The Child And The Killer". TVGuide.com.
^ Hal Erickson. "The Child and the Killer (1959) - Max Varnel - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related - AllMovie". AllMovie.