Hunted

Although this movie is nearly fifty years old, it had me on the edge of my seat the whole way through. What was going to happen next? Would the characters escape? I can't say much more, without giving away the story except - "Hunted" was brilliantly plotted and directed. Thumbs up to everyone concerned, including Dirk Bogarde as the wanted man, and Jon Whitely as the little boy whom he first used, and then befriended.

There is a very perceptible difference between Hollywood productions and British filmmaking. Hollywood would have over-dramatized this film. "Big" stars would have been included. The production values would have been pristine, first-rate and in color. And the end result would have been considerably less than that which was produced by British filmmaking. Dick Bogarde was just as good as any 50s Hollywood male star. The child star, Jon Whitely, was exceptional, and some spoiled LA brat could not have done half as well. A film about a murderer trying to escape can be gripping. And a film about a mistreated boy who runs away from home can be very engaging as well. But if you combine those two elements, you have a classic, and this is it.

....and "Gloria" (1980) and "Leon" as well...Charles Crichton,whose career spans the second half of the century ("a fish named Wanda"!),is definitely a director to upgrade.

"Hunted" is a small gem ,a suspenseful sensitive story which casts Bogarde as an unlucky murderer on the lam and young John Whiteley as a moving kid.A road movie,from the bleak city to the wild moors of Scotland ,where a special chemistry between the man and the boy literally grows on the audience .

Spoilers.Spoilers. Like all the great storytellers ,Crichton introduces first Bogarde as the "villain " who abducts a cute brat.But further acquaintance shows this:actually both of them are victims of a society that increases the prestige of money ,of Bogarde's boss who sleeps with his wife ,a society that does not care a little bit about its orphans whom it leaves to hateful "parents" .The boy really acts as if he's got nothing to lose.

Admirable sequence :In a bedroom they share for one night,Bogarde begins a bedtime story for his protégé:it's a fairy tale ,a story of a giant.But little by little ,the story becomes HIS own story :what a smart way of letting us know about the hero's past!During this sequence ,which takes place halfway through the film,we see the boy SMILE for the first time.His face is so beaming we are on the verge of tears .He will laugh later ,in his pal's mean brother's house ,during the meal.When Bogarde sails away with his "hostage" ,he makes the story he told come true . End of spoilers .end of spoilers

Bogarde's rendering is a real tour de force and many consider this part

his first important one:tense,distraught,anguished,he runs the whole gamut of emotions.Matching him every step of the way is Whiteley's performance :in the three examples I mention at the beginning of my comment ,which I admire (with the exception of Besson's) ,the young actors cannot hold a candle to him.Instant karma:he won a special AA the following year,and was given the main part in Lang's "Moonfleet" in 1954.He was to meet again Bogarde in "Spanish gardener".

Crichton had often been labeled "for the whole family".But they totally missed the point:"hunted" is not a rosy work,its open ending does not settle the things ,but increases our fear of what will become of our two so endearing heroes.His directing is now nervous -the first sequences when the heroes do not stop running -,now intimate -all the scenes where the two characters hang on to each other,now poetic -the seagulls which accompany the triumphant voyage .A wonderful use of nature (not unlike Charles Laughton's "the night of the hunter") and its wildlife where the runaways take refuge.

Wonderful movie.

A hardened criminal gets back in touch with his humanity after caring for a vulnerable boy while both are on the run.

If you didn't love Dirk Bogarde before seeing this film, you will after.

Britain just after the second world war must have been a grim place indeed. Still looking like a bomb site, with poor living standards, inadequate social services, stifling conformity and tough policing. Amid this bleak social landscape, Bogarde is a hopeless, alienated character fleeing from the police after a crime of momentary passion. He is joined by a scared and emotionally scarred small boy also on the run from a harsh reality. Their journey together is gruelling yet at the same time strangely aimless, as they focus on escaping the past with little idea of their future.

Like all good road movies, the journey changes the characters, as they are affected, enriched and ultimately redeemed by their own striving and by their personal interaction. Any more detail would spoil this story but you can be guaranteed of a fine reward at the end if you can stick with the grinding progress of this particular odyssey.

Filmed in suitably bleak black and white, there's a slightly too earnest quality about the way this movie strives to put everything in the worst possible perspective – but that's when looked at from the comfortable perspective of half a century later when life is a lot softer for many of us. Go the distance with this one and you'll be a better person for it.