Review by rsoonsa

An engrossing and artful comedy, TONY DRAWS A HORSE is an account of the marital struggles of Howard and Clare Fleming (Cecil Parker/Anne Crawford), a physician and child psychologist who are parents of a greatly difficult package: eight-year-old Tony. The boy's penchant for painting pictures on doors and walls is an outgrowth from his mother's determination that he have complete freedom of expression, and is largely the cause of his being ejected from various boarding schools, and since his doctor father, played splendidly by Parker, is a believer in traditional discipline, the marriage of the two founders. The various elements of an elaborate script by journeyman Brock Williams, who also produces from Lesley Storm's hit play, are well woven by director John Paddy Carstairs, and snappily edited by Gerald Thomas, whose frenetic bent was later channeled into his direction of the Carry On series. It would be difficult to provide a more appropriate cast, with Parker, a master of comedic timing, and the ill-starred Crawford supported by the capable Mervyn Johns and Barbara Everest as Clare's parents, and Derek Bond as her sister's soon-to-be benedict, with the entourage gently plumbing the potential of this wide-ranging English farce.