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This particular D.H. Lawrence story has been done three additional times since this version came out in 1950. They would have to go some to compete with this film for drama and suspense.

I had never seen this film before tonight and the title is so incredibly deceptive. I expected a charming children's fantasy, but got something quite a bit different. One thing I would never do is allow small kids to see The Rocking Horse Winner. They will have nightmare's for years and will NEVER want to get on a rocking horse if you have one.

Hugh Sinclair and Valerie Hobson play a pair of post World War II self indulgent parents who are living way beyond their means, like a lot of folks are today on both sides of the pond. He gambles and she spends money on luxury items like there's no tomorrow. Her brother Ronald Squire bails her out a lot, but he's having no more of it.

All this is having an effect on the United Kingdom's best known child star of the time John Howard Davies. He's the oldest of the three kids and a withdrawn, but sensitive kid who knows there's something wrong.

Davies makes friends with the new handyman John Mills who is a wounded war veteran and before the war used to work as jockey in his youth. When Davies gets among other things a rocking horse for Christmas, Mills shows him how to ride ace-deuce, jockey style. Davies becomes obsessed with the horse and after a while he starts imagining the horse telling him about winning tips at the local track. When he's "really sure" these ponies have a habit of coming in.

Given these plot premises it sounds like you're setting up a comedy, but actually what we get is tragedy here, a stark a bitter tragedy.

Anthony Pellisier wrote and directed and John Mills produced this film for J. Arthur Rank. Pellisier used some unique and terrifying camera angles and makes the rocking horse an incredibly sinister figure. And he doesn't do too bad with his human players either.

The Rocking Horse Winner after almost 60 years still holds up well as one of the most sinister films I've ever seen. Don't be fooled by the title, definitely NOT one to have the kids view.

In London, the teenager Paul Grahame (John Howard Davies) lives with his upper class but financially broken family. His wasteful mother Hester Grahame (Valerie Hobson) is a compulsive buyer, spending all the family money in new expensive dresses, jewels and objects for their home. His father Richard Grahame (Hugh Sinclair) is a gambler, losing money in the horse races. His uncle Oscar Cresswell (Ronald Squire) is permanently covering the Grahame family debts. When the servant Bassett (John Mills) is hired, Paul finds that he can predict the winner of the horses' races rocking his wooden horse. Paul asks Bassett to become his partner, betting their money in the races, trying to prove that he is lucky and silencing the permanent whisper of the house needing more money. But the prize is high and fatal.

"The Rocking Horse Winner" is a dark tale of compulsion of D. H. Lawrence. I have never read his short story, and I did not feel any sexual connotation as mentioned in some reviews that I have glanced. The story is very disturbing and quite unpleasant, with great direction and performances, especially of Valerie Hobson in the role of a compulsive shallow woman. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Cavalo Campeão" ("The Horse Winner")

I've seen a few rocking horses in my time, but none that looked like this one. With its predatory teeth, gaping mouth, and flaring eyes, it looks more like Halloween than X-mas. No wonder it's got supposedly demonic powers. But then the social-climbing parents need help of the monetary kind. Mom (Hobson) isn't happy with just a big house and servants. She wants top status among the British upper-class, and by golly she'll spend whatever it takes, affordable or not. Meanwhile, Dad (Sinclair) tries to keep up by losing at gambling, while Uncle Oscar (Squire) is finally fed up with doling out money from the family trust. That leaves the kids (Davies, et.al.) to make out as best they can with neglectful parents. So where will the money come from, and how will the kids connect with Mom. Enter an infernal toy.

I can see the premise being done on the Twilight Zone, but certainly not to better effect. With his rather narrow eyes, little Paul (Davies) is positively scary when demonically whipping both himself and the wooden horse into a sweaty frenzy. A thousand gory films could not register more strongly than these inspired scenes. It's a unnerving spectre that moves the entire film into a special category of its own.

Surprisingly, the suspense of the rocking horse is not built up in the movie's main part. Instead, the film's majority deals with more ordinary matters: placing bets, pawning dresses, Uncle Oscar, Bassett (Mills) and Paul. Thus a natural contrast is laid for the demonic scenes. Nonetheless, the acting is first-rate, though Sinclair pretty much fades into the background as Dad, while Hobson's mom takes center stage in sleekly determined fashion. Then again, Mills is especially winning as the humane handy man. Happily, he furnishes needed companionship for the lonely boy. And, given the parent's upper-class pretensions, I detect a comment on the effects of Britain's traditional class system.

To me, however, it's never clear whether the whispering comes from the house or from Paul's internalizing of the family's money troubles. But, either way, the never-ending need for picking race-horse winners drives poor Paul into continuing his rocking horse frenzy. The tragedy lies in the personal toll this takes on him for the sake of his generally oblivious mother. Still, it is possible, unless I missed something, that Paul is just lucky picking winners rather than rocking horse possessed. After all, he wants to think he's lucky and maybe he is. In that case, no supernatural would be involved. Instead the upshot would be how an imaginative boy internalizes overriding family greed. In that case, I think the ending would be even more tragic. I may be mistaken, but I don't think the screenplay forecloses this second possibility. Either way, however, those final scenes are genuinely memorable.

Speaking of endings, it's certainly not one Hollywood's Motion Picture Code would have permitted. Good for the British. Because what we're left with is a truly remarkable one-of-a- kind, whose moral is as timely now as 6 decades ago. Don't miss it.

JOHN HOWARD DAVIES is the boy with the sinister rocking horse that enables him to predict winners of the forthcoming races. JOHN MILLS is the man who teaches him how to ride the horse, unintentionally setting up the tragic circumstances that unfold.

But it's VALERIE HOBSON as the selfish, compulsive spender living in middle-class luxury with hubby HUGH SINCLAIR, a man who can't keep up with her spending habits, who makes the most of a juicy role.Lucky for her, she has a well-to-do brother, played by RONALD SQUIRE, who becomes her private bank until his funds run out.

Then comes the heart of the story as we get to the boy and his magic rocking horse. It's this aspect of the dark fantasy that provides the most gripping moments of the film. However, even more could have been done to provide the suspense and conflict involved in the boy's desire to win money so that he could keep his mother and father from being bankrupt. In this respect, William Alwyn's background score is a great asset.

Hobson, Ronald Squire and John Mills give the best performances in the film. Hugh Sinclair is wasted as the weak husband. Davies benefits from good direction but seems to be playing his role according to detailed direction rather than living it.

Highly recommended as an unusual exercise in fantasy/suspense with a noir quality.

Suspenseful, intriguing, disturbing, heartbreaking, atmospherically crafted by director and photographer, this is a gem of a movie that was too out of the rut to be appreciated by audiences in its day. The characters are not only totally believable but so convincingly acted that few viewers will have any difficulty accepting the plot's key supernatural premise. Because they are so credibly realistic, however, some of the people in this movie (the lad's mother and father, for instance) are far from sympathetic. This trait doubtless alienated contemporary audiences even further, particularly those looking for escape into an idealistic world of smilingly duty-bound, hardworking mothers and bumbling yet well-intentioned dads.

As stated, all the players are excellent—including producer John Mills who cast himself in a small but key role—but three are so outstanding it would churlish not to mention them individually: Valerie Hobson is perfect as the selfish, socially aspiring mum; John Howard Davies is likewise brilliant as the driven, psychotic boy of the title; and it's great to see Ronald Squire utilizing his talents to the full in a major role.

The pace never slackens and the movie incorporates so many unforgettably powerful scenes, it would be impossible to single just three or four for special praise.

In short: a masterpiece from screenwriter/director Anthony Pelissier (who handled only a handful of movies), photographer Desmond Dickinson and a fine array of artists and craftspeople under the control of actor/producer John Mills.

This film deals with subjects such as the value of money, greed and despair for money, selfishness, obsession, compulsion and ruin. It's not the easiest film to rate due to its complex nature in many ways. It's not Hitchcock but its level of suspense (frightening for its time and still surprising even today) has a hitchcockian feel to it. It doesn't have that much of suspense, but when it has it convinces. And all of that coming from a simple and apparently harmless rocking horse!

I guess the film has good morals and lessons to teach us. Learn from it or not is entirely up to us. This film is creepy and often unpleasant. It's a strange combination of things which result in... an awkward combination, to say the least. One thing that bothers me about it is the constant talk about money.

John Howard Davies is superb in this role, just like he was in 'Oliver Twist' previously. His eyes are so expressive, even almost creepy, such is the intensity in them. The character he portrays is very nice, polite, loving and cute, but also strange and obsessed by money and the rocking horse.

This boy wasn't plagued with the curses that took so many child actors to disgrace and grew up to be a successful producer of British sitcoms such as 'Mr. Bean'.

I first saw this film as a pare-teen many years ago and it stuck in my memory all these years; I suppose I identified, at the time, with the idea that events could be somehow manipulated and controlled by sheer intensity. When I recently saw this film on DVD, it still struck a nerve and, as an adult, realized what a strong film it is and why it had been in my memory all these years. Because the file is so old, many of the mannerisms in the movie appear quaint now, but the themes are timeless; sensitive kids sensing parental dysfunction and taking it upon themselves to try and "fix" things. It's interesting to note that John Mills, then a staple in English films, produced the film. I would recommend this film to anyone with a penchant for psychological drama of the old school.

The Rocking Horse Winner is directed by Anthony Pelissier, who also adapts the screenplay from the D. H. Lawrence short story of the same name. It stars Valerie Hobson, John Howard Davies, Ronald Squire, John Mills, Hugh Sinclair and Susan Richards. Music is by William Alwyn and cinematography by Desmond Dickinson.

Dreadful, Evil Money.

There's a handful of British films from the 1940s that deserve to be far better known, films that blended haunted themes with film noir traits and visual smarts. The Night Has Eyes, Uncle Silas, Corridor Of Mirrors and the magnificent Queen Of Spades readily come to mind. Now it has an official DVD release, we can add Anthony Pelissier's brilliant The Rocking Horse Winner to the obscure gem list.

Story has young Paul Grahame (Davies) receiving a weird looking Rocking Horse for Christmas. He's an introverted and sensitive lad, seemingly reaching out for some sort of guidance from his parents. Unfortunately his mother, Hester (Hobson), is a spendthrift badly hung up on money as some sort of status symbol, while his father, Richard (Sinclair), is a gambler, and not a good one at that. With Uncle Oscar Creswell (Squire) bailing them out of financial trouble for the last time, the Grahame family are heading for bankruptcy unless income can be found. Befriending the new handyman, Bassett (Mills), Paul is delighted to find that Bassett is an ex-jockey and regales him with tails of horse racing, he even learns from Bassett how to ride his Rocking Horse like a real jockey. Then something magical happens, Paul seems to be able to predict the winners of real horse races, and the money starts to roll in…

D. H. Lawrence's story gets a faithful adaptation and transfers quite excellently to the screen. It's a haunting fantasy at heart, but one tinged with utter sadness, and being Lawrence it has a sex metaphor sitting right in the middle of the greed and exploitation thematics. As story progresses, it soon becomes evident that Paul has to ride his Rocking Horse to a frenzied climax, if he doesn't get there then he will not see the name of the next race winner. Initially he is thrilled to be able to win lots of money, the house seems to be telling him that his parents must have more money, so aided by Bassett, he is saving the cash to help his frantic mother, who by now has resorted to pawning possessions for cash. But the more he wins, and the more Bassett and Uncle Oscar also profit, the further away from his parents Paul gets. Soon enough it's going to come to a head and it will prove to be devastating for the Grahame family.

Pelissier, Alwyn and Dickinson each work respective wonders to smoother the picture with a sense of the unearthly, not so much supernatural, but like a blurry discord, a purgatory where ignorant parenting dwells and childhood innocence is corrupted. Pic is crammed with sinister imagery. The Rocking Horse itself is up in the attic, which gives the makers perfect opportunities for shadows to enhance the "unhealthy" scenes of Paul riding away like a boy possessed, while for the key scene Pelissier uses a depth perception technique that is gloriously disorientating. An ascent by Paul up to the attic is moody magnificence, Hester's visit to the back room Pawnbroker (Charles Goldner) drips with unease, while the finale features a near demonic last shot that literally will be burned into your soul.

With top performances from the cast to seal the deal, this tale of a boy and his Rocking Horse gnaws away at the senses as the fallibility of the human condition is frighteningly laid bare. 9/10

A boy is able to pick winners at horse races after receiving a rocking horse as a gift. Based on a short story by Lawrence, this is a rather peculiar film that is interesting but not clear about the nature of the magical power the rocking horse possesses. It benefits from good acting. Hobson does well in the rather unsympathetic role of the mother who can never have enough money, which begins to wear on her young son, effectively played by Davies. The latter had played the title role the previous year in "Oliver Twist," but retired from acting before his teens and went on to have a long career as producer and director in British television. Mills is likable as a kindly stable hand who befriends the boy.

This is a very intriguing British film, quite unlike most others from the period; it's a pretty dark Freudian tale, from a D H Lawrence short story, whose overt depiction of a schoolboy and his magic toy gets away with a strictly taboo subtext. The focus is on a well-to-do household of the period, in which the hierarchy of adults and children is strictly defined; the parents try to keep their son Paul, wearing short trousers even in the depths of winter, innocent of their adult concerns – in particular, their problems with money. After discovering that his rocking horse gives him secret powers when he rides it hard enough, with giddy camera-work showing how it feels when he 'gets there', the boy tries to usurp his father's role to provide his mother with what she needs. John Mills produced the film, and his interest was no doubt linked to his typecast image: he normally plays rather piously unimpeachable characters, so it's quite a shock to see him here directing the lad's first experience of 'riding'. The only slight difficulty is that the boy actor needed to be nearer his early teens to carry the weight of the story's darker implications.

One day, a fine young lad, played by John Howard Davies, gets a wooden rocking horse for a Christmas gift by his favorite uncle, a rich uncle. His father is a butterfingers with money, as he bets and loses it, while his wife, played by Valerie Hobson, is constantly at him, saying they need more money, we simply must have it. She, by the way, is used to having her way and used to living beyond their means. The uncle is her brother who has gotten them out of more than one financial scrape, who now refuses to do it anymore. He's done. The boy discovers by getting on the horse and rocking, that the horse not only talks to him, but gives him tips on the winners at the horse track. By way of betting through the groundskeeper, played by John Mills, the young boy amasses gads of money. And yet, what starts as a fantasy and a somewhat whimsical little film takes a dramatic and scary turn. This film has a little bit of everything for everyone: fantasy, humor, drama, and even a bit of the Gothic touch. The lesson to be learned from this film is simple: do not argue, or discuss money issues, in front of your children. One feels that maybe writer D. H. Lawrence, who wrote the short story from which this was based, may have lived a similar type of childhood but to a degree obviously. If it's draining for an adult, how do you think it makes children feel? This climax is made for a point for all adults - to learn from and change. A very dramatic and memorable film is "The Rocking Horse Winner." All the actors were exceptional, including the young lad, but the real star of the story is author D. H. Lawrence's imagination that tries to teach people the only way he can.

This is about a British family. The mother (Valerie Hobson) spends beyond her means. The father gambles...badly and loses his job. The family is close to bankruptcy when their young son Paul (John Howard Davies) develops this uncanny ability to predict winners in horse races. How does he do it? By riding his rocking horse.

I read the D.H. Lawrence short story back in college in the 1980s and never forgot it. I heard about this film but was afraid to see it...I didn't think there was any way to film the story without it looking stupid. Also this movie is hard to find. I finally did catch it and I was impressed. They managed to take a very dark and strange short story and make an excellent movie out of it. It moves quickly (it's only 90 minutes) and I was never bored for one second. The acting really helps to carry this one. Hobson is just OK as the mother but Davies as the little boy, John Mills as Bassett and Ronald Squire as Uncle Oscar are just great. Ultimately the movie is sad and depressing but just incredible. This was way too ahead of its time to connect with audiences of 1950 and it (sadly) remains unknown to this day. Well worth seeing.

It is an adaptation of the D. H. Lawrence short story. The upper-middle class Grahame family has money troubles. The son Paul receives a rocking horse for Christmas. It's a lucky horse and it starts helping him pick horses for the races. It comes with a price.

This is some Twilight Zone Black Mirror stuff. I really love the concept. It does need to start showing the downside a lot sooner. That's where most of the drama would exist. It should be fifty-fifty. The money situation should be more dire. The drama needs to be elevated. Without that, this is really only a TV episode worth of material.

It seems that this was the first time anyone had tried putting D.H. Lawrence on film; its also wonderfully well done, a great deal better than Ken Russell's overblown excess.

A large part of the credit goes to William Alwyn's creepy score, similar to the work he had done for Odd Man Out a few years before. Odd Man Out is reckoned to be one of the best British films, but this is about equal in quality.

I don't want to spoil the story for those who aren't familiar with it; but when you read that it's about a boy and his magic rocking horse, you might not be prepared for the darkness involved. The undertones of the story make it closer to Pasolini or Fassbinder than to anything we have come to expect from British cinema.

Some scenes of exposition are typical of the era, with a lot of scintillating conversation; these help to understand the story, but you can probably go to the fridge without missing too much. The essential scenes are - a) those with the rocking horse; b) those between the boy and the mother; c) all those with Alwyn's music. (Alwyn deserves a better reputation than he now enjoys).

Near the end is one shot you really should check out, where the boy sees the storm-clouds form into horses' heads.This must surely have been an influence on later movies like The Haunting (1963).

Fresh from his success in David Lean's "Oliver Twist", John Howard Davies skilfully takes on a rather different role in this engaging dark fantasy. He ("Paul") lives with his wastrel parents and debt is never far away. She, (Valerie Hobson), is a compulsive shopper and he (Hugh Sinclair) a compulsive gambler - neither are very good at their chosen profession! Luckily, it's usually kind uncle "Oscar" (Ronald Squire) who picks up the pieces, but even he is tiring of constantly bailing them out. Things start to look up after the they engage "Bassett" (John Mills) who befriends then provides his young master with a rocking horse in the attic. Mysteriously, when riding this wooden beast the youngster sees the future. He can tell which horse is going to win. He only tells his new friend who is initially sceptical, but with them soon having the huge sum of £1,200 in the kitty and his mother reduced to pawning her most treasured possessions, the pair have to find a way of getting the cash to her without her knowing - or becoming too reliant on it. To that end, they read in "Oscar" who overcomes his own scepticism and finds a way to keep his mother in a style she will appreciate. Of course, any gift comes with a cost and the young "Paul" finds himself constantly hearing calls from the very fabric of the house demanding more and more money. He rides and rides - but can never satiate it's needs. The Derby looms but the doctors have suggested the now emotionally exhausted boy stay in bed. One last hoorah? It takes a little while to get going but once the wheels of the story are in motion, there develops a strong chemistry between Mills and Davies and between him and an Hobson who gradually plays her way into the part quite effectively as all deliver a strong and quite poignant story. Never look a gift horse? Well, that would seem to apply here!

The dialogue is expectedly very British and good. Though a perfunctory performance was all the needlessly limited role of the father required, all other players did wonderfully.

Interestingly, the story concerns a good, but sybaritic mother's avarice and her loving son's obsessive desire to satisfy it. It also plays into the idea of money as an inherent evil while earning my high praise by not taking this too far. It is also another one of many films I have enjoyed on the fascinating subject of gambling.

Unsatisfying film which does have a great premise: a young boy finds he can predict winning racehorses by riding (and meditating upon) the toy rocking horse in his bedroom. Handsome British production adapted from a D.H. Lawrence story unfortunately never quite lifts off. The cast (including John Mills and Valerie Hobson) is first-rate, but the results are dour and glum. Of course the plot doesn't necessitate the proceedings to be either scary or haunting, but it does require some intrigue in the principal set-up, and even this is handled without intensity or particular insight. It's just another melodrama, and one with a dispiriting conclusion. ** from ****