The Boy Who Stole a Million

The fine job Charles Crichton did with Jon Whitely on 'Hunted' doubtless led to him being assigned by Bryanston to this slightly more ambitious variant on the sort of thing the Children's Film Foundation were starting to make (such as 'Hunted in Holland' the following year) depicting a pursuit involving a kid against a backdrop of travelogue. Fellow Ealing veterans Douglas Slocombe and Tristram Carey supplied the location photography and the gallumphing score.

Maurice Reyna is a bank messenger at a bank in Valencia. His father, Virgilio Teixeira, drives a cab. Until it breaks down. Mechanic Harold Kasket wants ten thousand pesetas for the repairs he's made. Teixeira doesn't have it, but it's a fiesta night, so he should do well. Kasket says no money, no cab.

Back at the bank, Reyna is instructed in the basics of a loan by his manager. Not having any collateral, Reyna simply takes a stack of bills when he leaves for lunch. He goes looking for his father to give them to him. It takes a while, but they notice a million missing pesetas. The police are called in. Soon enough, every pickpocket and similar crook in town is looking for what they imagine is an easy score.

Charles Crichton's movie is a sweet little thing, helped along by Douglas Slocombe's black-and-white camerawork. Or it likely would have been if it had been left alone. The copy I saw had been 'restored' and 'colorized until it looked like a faded hand-stenciled Pathe movie from 1906, full of blotches, flares of color that made the images unrecognizable,and so forth. Only the scene shot in Valencia at dawn looks good, and that looks amazing.

Paco's father needs 10,000 Ptas to get his taxi back from the mechanic, and Paco has a job in a bank. In this fairy tale of early 60's Spain, the little boy just walks off with the money, and virtually the whole of the wrong side of town go looking for him, along with the police. Socially the film touches on the differences between the lives of the wealthy and the poor, the scavengers who live from sorting through rubbish dumps, the extravagant fiestas with their music, fireworks and dancing.

Charles Crichton directed Ealing classics such as The Titfield Thunderbolt, The Lavender Hill Mob as well as his earlier "Hue and Cry". These latter two have similarities to TBWSAM in having an extended chase sequence.

However Crichton forsakes his customary very English locations for Spain. The film consists, with a brief preamble scene setting, of an hour long chase filmed in out and through the streets of Valencia as the young thief evades his pursuers. It must be the longest and one of the most inventive and superbly directed chase scenes in film history.

The chase involves the young "thief", his dog, crowds, cars, bicycles, groups on foot, animals, trams; apparently covering much of Valencia. It is a masterful handling of all these very different independent elements involved in the chase, the flow appearing seamlessly but of course infinitely choreographed by Crichton in an eclectic range of city locations. I am not sure that this combination of splendid cinematography, choice of location, direction and editing has been equalled.

A great performance from the lead, the young boy, Pasco, and (again a seamless) ensemble of British and Spanish cast. It is however rather let down by the writing, it is rather pedestrian and the resolution at the end disappointing.

Why it is never seen is a mystery. However at least it is being screened by Talking Pictures in the UK who seem to have a unique talent for picking out the gems that others have entirely missed. Why it received no awards is another mystery - perhaps connected with the first. The film so closely resembles one of those Continent classics of the era by one of the directorial Masters.

Is it that only the Continentals are acceptable doing The Continental - by the British as much as by anyone else?

A very gritty view of Spain with a more believable plot than normally found in a film in which the star is a child. Good acting all round especially Pepe, the dog. Interesting cars all of which were hard to identify as they were probably not sold in the UK and interesting scenery most of which has by now probably been swept away. The jetty seen near the end it still there and can be seen on Goggle maps. In 1960 a million pesetas was about £6,000 which in 2021 is about £143,000 so an amount well worth chasing after. The taxi repair bill of 10,000 pts. Was about £60 in 1960 which is about £1,430 in 2021 so that was some repair bill which probably greatly exceeded the value of the taxi at the time.