Five Have a Mystery to Solve

This six-parter, made for the Children's Film Foundation, is a fast-paced, jolly-hockey, and rather fun version of Enid Blyton's novel, 'Five Have A Mystery To Solve'.

Julian, Dick, Anne, their cousin George, Timmy the dog, and for this adventure, Wilfred (who communicates with the animals), find themselves looking after a cottage for the weekend and soon become interested in the mysteries of Whispering Island, a nature reserve owned by the reclusive Sir Hugo.

This being a serial for children it has lots of cliff-hangers, some cartoon bad guys, and several moments for the viewer to cheer or boo. It also has some laughs which will appeal to the adult, but which were perhaps not intended at the time this was filmed.

The five children are generally OK actors, with George and Wilfred being particularly memorable. The serial has its moments of tension which will probably keep young children interested, and the archive print is quite a nice one which is perfectly watchable.

Five Have A Mystery To Solve was a 6 part serial made by the always dependable UK Children's Film Foundation, for children at the time and not really for adults nearly half a century later. However, adults who like me own rose-tinted glasses will have no problem in adjusting to the different world presented, although anyone who knows the original story might have a little trouble adjusting to the screenplay. This Famous Five was Enid Blyton's 20th in the series and written the year before – imho it was her last good story before her illness took her over. It was the 2nd Five film the CFF had produced, the first being Five On A Treasure Island, in 1957.

Julian, George, Dick, Ann (sic) and Timmy arrive at a family friend's house overlooking a harbour to keep the boy who stays with her (Wilfred) company. It doesn't take long for the lure of the mysterious Whispering Island and its supposed treasure hidden there to envelop them all, providing many chases involving the 2 sinister groundsmen there. It's nostalgic and enjoyable to watch, and although I can understand why they did it, as a purist I would have preferred it to stick a just a little closer to Blyton's plot – but the atmosphere was perfect, of the time and the cast certainly entered into the spirit of the thing. What the baddies were secretly doing and why it made them so ruthless takes some swallowing though!

The dual BFI DVD releases in Sep 2010 of this and Five On A Treasure Island are lovingly presented with plenty of background notes by Norman ("Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About The Famous Five") Wright, providing me tonight with A Wonderful Time!

Didi, I envy you so very much for having been to the BFI in London on 8/2/09 and being able to watch this Blyton movie! Why is the CFTF not making commercial copies on DVD???

Watched this in the mid to late sixties on German TV and was always trying to find a copy. Is there anybody out there who has one and would be willing to make a copy for me? I'm looking for this one for more than 40 years. This would be a dream come true! My e-mail address is waldenpond88@hotmail.com.

The British Children's Film Foundation (CFF) produced lots of very good and very thrilling movies for kids in the fifties and until the mid sixties. Everything that has been made after 1966 is unfortunately not nearly as good as the early black & white films.

Rank Screen Services and Rayant Pictures were among the movie production companies who made movies for CFF.

The CFF has been founded by Mary Field.