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This film really is as good as people say. It's worth watching for the locations, the photography and that gallery of British stars. As soon as I saw Joan Hickson chatting to Barbara Windsor about lipstick shades I was hooked. The script is often funny, despite the harrowing subject matter (every parent's nightmare), but I can't help feeling it would have been much better directed if made 10

years earlier. Films of the 40s had a comic snap that the 50s lost. In fact, it sometimes looks like a 40s script made in the 50s. It's just that opportunities for comedy are lost. A film with this structure is picaresque - it's an excuse to get your foot in the door and nose around other people's front rooms and meet a lot of people you wouldn't otherwise. More could have been made of the

encounters with Thora Hird ("Take the door with you, dear, as far as it will go.") and the fat lady in the newsagents who blames the Russians. Why the

Russians? "Well, if we knew that we'd know everything." The boy on the bike

could have been more of a character. And the girl at the garage (gas station to you) is just a Rank starlet with her painfully refined accent and crisp summer dress (for dispensing petrol?). Some of the best bits are back at the police

station with the excellent David Farrar and the sergeants who have to read a

pile of trashy novels as part of the investigation. Well worth a look.

I have seen this film a number of times on television. I find it quite pleasant and nostalgic as I was a young boy in the UK in the 50's and the images bring back so many pleasant memories. It is good to see so many actors in supporting roles who went on to become major stars in the UK like Barbara Windsor and Thora Hird, and a host of other well known British characters.

It is a typical British 50's film and is well made and well acted, although albeit quite stiff upper lipped and somewhat wooden, especially from the leading actors like the child's mother. In fairness to her the lines that were given to her were pretty weak, and it is a shame that her movie career did not go as well as it could of - she was certainly a quite stunning girl.

The plot is centered around a young baby being kidnapped and the parents David Knight and Julia Arnall plus Detective David Farrar's efforts to find the missing infant. Knight is the token American that seemed to be the staple of any British film of that time, you just gotta have a Yank in this Rank. Julia Arnall is a stunner; a German model signed by Rank but unfortunately not the best of actresses her contract didn't last long. A shame because with her looks she was almost in the Grace Kelly class. The tension builds nicely and there is a virtual parade of character actors and actresses that appeared in so many British films of the period. I was a boy of 11 when this film was made and it adds to the enjoyment to see cars, trucks and buses of that time in colour instead of the usual black and white.

When a baby is snatched from outside a high street pharmacy, the police begin a painstaking search for clues and information whilst also trying to deal with the child's distraught parents.

Green's film is very much of its time, and there's nothing wrong with that – in 1956 Britain we thought nothing of leaving a baby in its pram outside a store. Small shops ran library services, small grocers and bakeries thrived, large supermarkets were a thing of the future and London's parks were awash with uniformed armies of perambulating nannies…

In the lead, Farrar is a little dull but this is perhaps more the fault of the script, which leaves little space for character development. As the baby's parents, Knight and Arnall both struggle with the challenges their parts bring, although certainly the script serves them better than Farrar, exploring the different emotional impacts a lost child can bring with both characters reacting differently. Green is better served by a delightful array of supporting character actors, each of whom savours the few lines they are given. This was a hallmark of British cinema in the 40s, 50s and 60s, where so often the supporting and bit players were much more believable and entertaining than the leads – witness Joan Hickson's amusingly patronising tone with her teenage customers (one of whom is Barbara Windsor!) in the chemist shop, or ice cream seller Joan Sims' hilarious gossiping about keeping her hairdo intact in an open top car. Thora Hird is hysterical as a caustic landlady, disapproving of plain-clothes policewomen, whilst Everley Gregg offers a sublime turn as a 'no nonsense' Viscountess in oily overalls.

All in all an enjoyably episodic story, coloured with fascinating location shooting and wonderful cameos, and a treat for anyone interested in Britain or British cinema in the 1950s.

'Lost' is rather like one of those old 1950s public information films - the acting and dialogue are crisp and stylised, real emotion is kept in check, and the boys in blue will always uncover your man (or woman). Brilliant use is made of UK locations (mainly in London), and the slice of life in 1955 is fascinating. Technicolor is also superb, and the whole thing looks great. It's dated sure - sometimes hilariously so - but then it is half a century old, and anyway that's half its charm. Red herrings litter the plot, and the clifftop climax is suitably atmospheric. Look out for a very youthful Thora Hird and Joan Sims. Recommended.