Soapbox Derby

In Soapbox Derby, which runs a hair more than an hour, we get 15-year-old Michael Crawford as head of a "gang" (more a club) called the Battersea Bats. They are keen to enter a soapbox derby and work hard on designing and fabricating a car. But a rival gang also wants to win. But they decide to steal the plans and copy the design rather than do their own work. More sophisticated and realistic than the US "Our Gang" shorts, the film shows the triumph of good work over those who steal and lie. Very watchable. The on-location shooting is excellent. Although the film ends with the bad boys losing the race (of course) and falling into mud (for a good belly laugh) it also has its dramatic moments as when one boy's little sister gets run over by a truck.

Crawford is especially spunky and shows his prowess at knockabout comedy. Cast also includes Mark Daly as Grandpa, Jean Ireland as the mother, and Denis Shaw as the odious Mr. Lender.

Also of interest in Soapbox Derby is a truly ugly little car called an Isetta, almost a 3-wheeled car with the single door on the front of the vehicle.

CFF films are always well worth watching but probably mainly for those born in the 1950s and 1960s as they take us back in time to a black and white childhood possibly seen through rose tinted specs. I had a "bogey" when I was a lad but without the fancy bodywork seen in this film the only bodywork being the body from a large pram, and the wheels.

Battersea Power Station towers majestically over this fairly early Children's Film Foundation presentation starring a tousle-haired young Michael Crawford, attractively shot on location in glorious summer weather in the days when it's chimneys still belched smoke, bubble cars were considered cool and the leader of the rival gang of ruffians wears shorts. His father, though, is played by Denis Shaw - probably the meanest-looking heavy ever to appear in a CFF production - who himself does one hairy-looking stunt in a quarry before he and his ne'r-do-well son suffer the concluding ritual humiliation already becoming a CFF convention.

The strongest language any of the kids uses is "Oh, blow it!!"; but modern audiences are more likely to take offence at one of the boys constantly being called "four eyes".

I grew up in Charlton, at the time the film was made. A more simple age, when we made playthings out of things we could scrounge. The Children actor's do a wonderful job in this film. It has happiness, sadness, and pathos. A lovely insight to the past. Beautifully done. Very highly recommended.

Just saw again. Shows one reason I want to turn the clock back - only drawback nonBattersea accent . I speak as someone from there! Otherwise - why can't life and today's kids be like that?