Le voyageur sans billet

This was a most enjoyable film, using the coronation of a year or so before as a backdrop for the story. Lots of very familiar British actors, many of whom became well-known in later years, were in the film and Eddie Calvert's theme became a hit in those less beat-conscious years.

John and Julie is written directed by William Fairchild. It stars Colin Gibson, Lesley Dudley, Noelle Middleton, Moira Lister, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Sid James and Megs Jenkins. Out of Beaconsfield Studios, film is shot in Eastman Color with music by Philip Green (trumpet solo's Eddie Calvert) and cinematography by Arthur Grant.

John (Gibson) and Julie (Dudley), two young children in 1953, set off on their own from Dorset to see The Queen's Coronation in London....

Utterly charming picture full of youthful bluster and eccentric adults. Film is very much of its time, it harks back to a time when kids were safe on the streets, people were only too glad to help and you could drink water from the local stream! In essence it's a road movie, one that is powered by two youngsters who by hook or by crook, want to see the Queen get crowned. Story shows how these two young kiddies use initiative and naivety to get to their destination, how they affect everyone who comes into contact with them, and finally how such an historical event brought about a joy and community spirit that is sadly all too lacking in today's modern British society. All of which is deftly flecked by Eddie Calvert's beautiful trumpet.

God bless her!

Is it contrived? And do you have to be a fan of the British Royals to get the most out of it? Not at all. Yes you need a modicum of disbelief suspension to accept that the kids could make it all that way without getting nabbed by the police, the latter of which hardly come off as sharp coppers here, but Fairchild is all about youthful determination and how young cherubs can often beguile us adults. Fairchild also knits it all together with ease, even managing to unobtrusively insert actual footage of the Coronation parade into the joyous climax. The child actors are thankfully, very likable, especially Dudley who is simply adorable, and the cast is a roll call of British film treasures. Stand outs are Sid James at his grumpy best as John's father, Hyde-White is classy and correct, Jenkins as usual delivers a memorable female touch and Lister scores high as a tart with a heart. Peter Sellers fans should note he has only a small role, that of a good old British Bobby.

Of its time for sure, but that is a good thing here. A true spirit lifting film and a beacon of unadulterated joy for the child in all of us. 8/10

Reviewer Jennifer Nicol from Vancouver states that Julie is played by Leslie Dunlop who later appeared in May to December. This is incorrect. Julie is played by Leslie Dudley, a completely different person, whose career did not continue much past this film.

This part could have been served better by a more talented and engaging child actress, but the film has a lot more to carry it through to a satisfying conclusion.

The stock footage of the coronation events is very interesting. I saw this coronation on television as a child and have always remembered it.

The children's escapades are very innocent and this film could not be made today, as we don't approve of adults giving children rides in cars (for instance) without even asking where their parents are!

This is a charming film of a bygone time and could be enjoyed by everyone. That it is filmed in colour is a bonus, as the English countryside is lovely.

Just months later Katie Johnson (whose resemblance here to a statue of Queen Victoria is explicitly remarked upon) was sharing a much darker film with Peter Sellars (presently fifteenth in the cast list), this time recalling the Old Queen's death; at that time a more recent memory than the present Queen's coronation in 1953 is today.

This long-forgotten Group Three production follows the same narrative arc of the same year's 'The Night of the Hunter' of a small boy and an even smaller girl journeying across a landscape peopled by adults whose world they only dimly comprehend (or not at all, such as Moira Lister's profession) and occasionally frightens them.

While Laughton's film was deliberately stylised - shot largely on sound stages in gothic black & white - and this makes extensive use of locations and actuality footage of the Coronation parade itself, the fifties Eastmancolor in which it is bathed creates an experience in many ways just as strange to experience when seen today.

I saw this movie when it first came out in the l950's. It's the story of a little boy and girl called John and Julie who want very desperately to attend the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth IInd. When it becomes apparent that their parents can't take them they run away together to London and the film is the story of their little adventure and the things that happened to them. There is a chance they may not see the Queen.... It is funny and the children are very appealing.

The background music for the film is very melodic. This music was recorded by trumpet player Eddie Calvert. The little girl, Julie was played by Lesley Dunlop, who acted in the early l990's in a British TV serial called "May to December", playing the part of Zoe Callender.