Piccoli detectives

From director Charles Crichton who made the classic A Fish called Wanda in 1988 is this early effort from 1947, Hue and Cry.

A crime caper focussed on kids who discover a criminal ring that are using a comic strip to send instructions to plan their jobs.

Joe Kirby (Harry Fowler) is a lad who is always in a spot of bother. He is placed by a policeman for a job with a Covent Garden grocer Nightingale (Jack Warner) who listens to his stories of a fur smuggling ring with a filthy laugh.

Felix Wilkinson (Alastair Sim) is the scatty comic strip writer who stories are being manipulated by an insider in the publishers. As the police does not believe Joe's fantastical tale, it is up to him and his gang to take on the crooks.

I must have first watched this film as a teenager. It rather reminded me of those Enid Blyton adventures I used to read as a kid. The post war setting of a bombed out London make the city look like an adventure playground for kids.

It is an enjoyable Ealing comic adventure as the kids take on adult crooks and put themselves in jeopardy. Sim gives an amusing cameo.

I particularly enjoyed seeing London in its derelict state after WW2, I remember my parents taking me there in those days and seeing piles of bricks everywhere. It was amusing to read a review by an American academic whose main complaint was that the children were all white and there should have been a better balance with black children. I wonder where he thought Ealing Studios might have found such people in 1946/7 - the Empire Windrush did not arrive at Tilbury until June 1948. Indeed looking at the devastation in London in the film it is amazing that Ealing could make anything. This is something that i watched as a kid and have seen many, many times again.

I found a copy of this movie in my local (Phoenix, Arizona) used book store. Ah, bliss! The sights of old London, albeit somewhat bomb-damaged, before the developers started to build ugly tower blocks. The movie itself is excellent, with good characterization for the 'kids', although Jack Warner's role as the villain seems a little overblown. Alistair Sim's role as the nervous author of comic books is an excellent vignette, showing his trademark nervous twitchy smile. The final chase and confrontation, at "Ballard's Wharf", reputedly in Wapping, was actually filmed on the opposite side of the river, as can be scene in the long shots, where St. Paul's cathedral can be seen.

Though I don't think this film is particularly well regarded, or even known; this is a splendid little tale of youth as the adult world would prefer it and a rather kindly mentor in the lugubrious shape of Alastair Sim. The plot hinges on the now unknown pursuits of comic strips and collecting vehicle registration (licence) plate numbers.

The humour is more subtle and understated than in the later films, indeed one can feel the transition with the years through films such as The Magnet and The Maggie before we reach the true classics of the genre.

Finally, though many will link the name of the great Alastair Sim with Ealing Comedies, am I right in thinking that this, the first of the Ealing Comedies is the only one to feature him?

Alastair is better known working with other studios I believe.

Generally reckoned to be the first 'Ealing' comedy,a fondly-regarded series of gentle,humorous satires of British life in the late 1940's-early 1950's,this is actually more of a rowdy,fast-paced crime caper than what gradually developed to the above familiar style of this famous film studio.However,it is none the worse for that,with an amusing script and speedy direction by Ealing veterans TEB Clarke and Charles Crichton,and efficient performances by a mostly teenage cast.Looking from a 21st Century viewpoint,it is an astonishing fact how UK teens dressed (in dull tweed suits) and behaved (no guns,knives or bad language) in the pre-rock n' roll era;in this more cynical day and age,it would be the adults stopping the kids committing crime rather than vice versa.This actually helps the film in giving it a quaint period charm which will never be recaptured,as is the well-photographed scenes of war-torn London.Alastair Sim is billed first but the real leading man is inimitable cockney actor Harry Fowler,while the usually genial Jack Warner (a little uncomfortably) is the main adult protagonist,a ruthless villain;Sim is enjoyably buffoonish as a cartoonist,but his is basically a minor character and little seen despite his top billing. The highlight is the final battle between the criminal gang and London street urchins who seem to swarm over their prey like soldier ants.The sequence is funny,exhilarating,thrilling and even spectacular.

HUE AND CRY isn't the best Ealing comedy,and not necessarily the most typical,but despite dated elements is still largely very enjoyable and pleasantly nostalgic for older film-goers.

RATING:7 and a half out of 10.