The Boy and the Bridge

Thanks for all the excellent reviews of this film. I remember seeing this film as a 10 year old. It is very much in the vein of " The Red Balloon", another film of childhood and innocence. I think it is high time it was released on video. A lost cinematic gem! I was really impressed by the documentary feel of the film, and the London locations. I lived in Manchester as a child and once saw a part of the film "Hell Is A City" being filmed. That film also had real locations, and sadly most of those locations have disappeared in the last half century. Films such as "The Boy And The Bridge" are real social and historic documents and should be more widely available. Another film in a similar vein would be Carol Reeds " A Kid For Two Farthings"

I remember seeing this film when it was first released. I also, like tombancroft2 have never met anyone who remembers seeing this excellent film. It is pointless for me to go through the storyline, as this has been superbly covered by tombancroft2. I was twelve years old when I saw it at my local cinema, I enjoyed it so much, my Mother bought me a small "Mamod" steam engine, {similiar to the model the boy has}.

I remember the clip where the boy thinks he is going to get crushed by the massive {600 tons } counterbalance weight,also the one showing the large steam engines working. I recently saw a television documentary about Tower Bridge showing the steam engine preserved, but not in working order.

The film has been shown on television, but I cannot remember when. I would also like to know if this film was made available, as i would purchase it straightaway.

I saw 'The Boy and The Bridge'when it first came out in the cinema ( I was 14) and it coincided with my first crush on a girl at school. I planned to ask her to go and see it with me, but it never came round again and I always wondered about it as it moved me at that time.I can remember looking in the cinema listings expecting to see those magic words 'the boy and the Bridge' So I could take the plunge. I sometimes think I dreamt it all up. I surfed a couple of years ago for it on the net with no luck - until now. Thanks for the memory jog on the storey line from another comment,I could barely remember anything except the bridge and the seagul. I also remember the boy walking through the cobbled streets of the eastend with that wonderful and unique background music,I think it was played on one of the old east end homemade sort of xylaphone things. I wonder who the musician was and whether its still around - a lovely melody and very apt for the setting of the film.I seem also to remember the boy stealing an apple from a street barrow.

Obviously my score is going to be affected by the fact my mum took me to see it at about age 6, but for a kid who grew up in the East End not 2 miles from where all the action was filmed, it was all fantastically romantic and absorbing.

My abiding memory is of the boy sleeping in the tower, away from all adults, independent and living the dream.

(Completely far-fetched of course as the place has always been locked down like Fort Knox, but still.)

Would love to see it again, I may ask the BFI if I can see it in one of their viewing rooms (you can, apparently, ask to do this).

The Boy and the Bridge is a charming, haunting, oddity of a film, almost as much a tourist information film of Tower Bridge and the area of London in that vicinity as it is a story of the naïve innocence that childhood was in the fifties.

Lovingly filmed, the travelogue part is now, in many respects, an historical document, showing in some detail a comparatively small area of London as it was around 50 years ago.

It is something of a rarity for the star of a film to be a boy aged around 11 but this is the case here. Young Tommy Doyle, very well played by Ian Maclaine in his only acting role mentioned in this site, lives with his father, a stereotypical, hard drinking, heart-of-gold Irishman played by Liam Redmond. As a result of a drunken fracas, a grandfather clock gets "smashed in the face" by the father and when, the following day, he is sought by the police, young Tommy puts two and two together and believes his father has killed a man.

Shame over what his father has done and fear of being taken into custody cause Tommy to go on the run and by fortune he finds access to Tower Bridge where he manages to set up home in a disused room in one of the towers. Befriended only by Sammy the Seagull, he goes about the task of setting up home and fending for himself. There are many shots of the behind-the-scenes workings of the bridge which are as interesting now as when filmed.

For the first half of the film there is minimal dialogue, indeed Tommy, who had been on screen for most of the time, doesn't say a word. One of the joys of The Boy and the Bridge is a musical score of considerable charm and invention by Malcolm Arnold and, by virtue of the lack of dialogue he has more time than is usual in movies to develop his ideas. In Whistle Down the Wind, another film dealing with childhood perceptions, Arnold lightened proceedings by the use of a tuneful and lilting score and he was able to do the same for The Boy and the Bridge.

That other reviewers are recalling this film from decades earlier is ample testimony both to the haunting quality of this movie and its rarity. It is high time it received the recognition and circulation it deserves.

Update May 2017. This film is now available to view from the BFI. Googling 'BFI Boy and the Bridge' will get you there.

Further update May 2023. There is a fascinating major article on this movie (and others scored by Malcolm Arnold) in a new book "The Film Music of Malcolm Arnold" by Alan Poulton and David Dunstan and published by The Malcolm Arnold Society ISBN 9798781218080.