Tony Draws a Horse

I like Cecil Parker, and he made quite a few good films with Mervyn Johns. Sadly, though, this isn't really one of them. It comes across as a rather hastily adapted version of Lesley Storm's pretty unremarkable play with him playing a doctor who falls out with wife "Clare" (Anne Crawford) over the best way to bring up their rather precocious young son "Tony" (Anthony Lang) - who has a habit on drawing on any flat surface he can find. The last straw comes when he draws an anatomically accurate horse (which we never see) and his father flips his lid.... The gist of the film is the parents' overly contrived falling out that develops, via a series of stroppy conversations and mis-communication to lead them to split and to consider divorce before their child's behaviour finally succeeds is forcing an alignment of their attitudes to discipline... It's not rubbish, but the talents of Johns and Parker are wasted on this rather static, clunky effort that I'm glad I sat through, but I don't think I could recommend to anyone.

An engrossing and artful comedy, TONY DRAWS A HORSE is an account of the marital struggles of Howard and Clare Fleming (Cecil Parker/Anne Crawford), a physician and child psychologist who are parents of a greatly difficult package: eight-year-old Tony. The boy's penchant for painting pictures on doors and walls is an outgrowth from his mother's determination that he have complete freedom of expression, and is largely the cause of his being ejected from various boarding schools, and since his doctor father, played splendidly by Parker, is a believer in traditional discipline, the marriage of the two founders. The various elements of an elaborate script by journeyman Brock Williams, who also produces from Lesley Storm's hit play, are well woven by director John Paddy Carstairs, and snappily edited by Gerald Thomas, whose frenetic bent was later channeled into his direction of the Carry On series. It would be difficult to provide a more appropriate cast, with Parker, a master of comedic timing, and the ill-starred Crawford supported by the capable Mervyn Johns and Barbara Everest as Clare's parents, and Derek Bond as her sister's soon-to-be benedict, with the entourage gently plumbing the potential of this wide-ranging English farce.

A very mediocre film from what was originally a stage play.Consequently we have actors talking quickly non-stop, not listening to logical reason, overacting like mad, and saying the most diabolical rubbish.The only character with whom I had any sympathy was that of Anne Crawford who wanted a divorce and to get away from her overbearing. pompous husband Howard, (Cecil Parker).I was disappointed not to see the horse drawn by young Tony Fleming which was after all was the title of the film.From certain veiled comments it seems young Tony drew a too accurate biological picture of the reproductive organs of the beast but the film producers were too pusillanimous to show this to the viewers.Of course there was censorship in 1950 when the film was made and they had to get the film passed by the censors for family viewing.

The most irritating character was that of Mrs Parsons (Barbara Everest) who tried to boss everyone around to her narrow blinkered, ill educated views and did not listen to alternative comments especially from her daughter (played by Barbara Murray) and sundry other members of her family & friends.She reminded me of Marjorie Fielding's character, Mildred Royd in "Quiet Weekend" (1946).Her character betrayed a naive stupidity.The famous statement in my summary title by Voltaire was apt, since the almost revolutionary disagreements by characters with their differing philosophies caused mild humour.The IMDb rating of 5.5 seems fair and I too gave it 5/10.

If you want to know why the Rank Organisation was in trouble and cinema attendance's on the beginning of their steady decline you only have to look at this film.Compare it with Born Yesterday or All About Eve to realise how far ahead where the Americans in filming this type of film.This film is dreadfully dull and lacks any wit.Edward Rugby stood out for me in a good but I'll served cast.If you have insomnia just start watching this before you aim to go to sleep.