Review: Never Take Sweets From a Stranger

Based on Roger Emerson Garis’s play The Pony Cart, Patrick Allen and Gwen Watford play parents to 9 year-old Janina Faye. New arrivals in Canada from England, Allen is to be the new school principal in their small town. Whilst attempting to ingratiate himself with the local societal pillars, he is put in a horrible position when young Faye claims to have been the victim of an elderly sex pervert who made her and another girl parade around naked for him. This elderly person just so happens to be Clarence Olderberry Sr. (Sir Felix Aylmer, in an incredible casting choice), the town’s eldest and wealthiest inhabitant. He and his lumber mill owner son Clarence Jr. (a solid Bill Nagy) basically run the town. The parents are undeterred and hope to take Olderberry the Senior to court for paedophilia. It turns many in the community against them who are either ignorant on the possibility of such crimes, or merely staunch defenders of the Olderberry family. He never actually ‘touched’ the girls they say (do they know that for a fact?), others even claim the girl – 9 years old! – ‘knew what she was doing’. Despicable attitude. Even the girl’s grandmother (well-played by Alison Leggatt) cautions them against taking action, thinking it will make trouble for Allen’s job.

 

Hammer Films tried something rather ambitious and controversial with this 1960 drama about paedophilia. Tackling a more earthly horror than usual, it was a box-office flop but in my opinion it might rank as one of the best films Hammer ever produced. That said, it’s such a different picture for them it’s probably a bit hard to rank it precisely. Can you really measure it against “The Vampire Lovers” and “The Horror of Dracula”? Directed by Cyril Frankel (Hammer’s “The Witches”) and scripted by John Hunter (co-writer of Hammer’s “The Pirates of Blood River”), perhaps I should just say it’s bloody well-done. It’s been particularly masterfully shot in B&W by Freddie Francis (who directed films himself such as Hammer’s “Dracula Has Risen From the Grave” and Amicus’ “Tales From the Crypt”), and the music score by Elizabeth Lutyens (“The Skull”, “Theatre of Death”) is good too.

 

Hammer were very brave to tackle this in 1959-60, and the popular maker of largely exploitation films show a relative amount of restraint here, actually. This is a very sober, serious film, fairly matter-of-factly done. Director Frankel is sensitive enough to not have the perpetrator of the piece come across like a charismatically evil Count Dracula figure, in fact he’s more often spoken about than seen in the film. When we do see him, he’s a pathetic, unglamorous sideline menace, really. The film only uses him as much as necessary to tell the story. By not giving Felix Aylmer much (if any) dialogue, it helps in not glamourising or cheapening such a human sickness/evil for entertainment purposes. The film does an outstanding job at showing just how useless the authorities can be in such matters, especially when the perpetrator comes from a high standing in the community. It’s not just the police who come in for criticism here though, most of the townsfolk treat the allegations with ghastly flippancy, some even blaming the little girl. She’s 9 years bloody old! Sadly, it’s all-too believable even in 2022 to be honest. I found it interesting to see how paedophiles were treated in cinema of this period, here it’s seen as a mental illness rather than resorting to the more biblically-inspired terms like ‘evil’. Evil deeds of a sick person is probably the best way to put it I think, though Aylmer’s definitely treated as ultimately criminal here and rightly so. Sick or not, he’s a public danger who shouldn’t be allowed in active society. The film is topped off with an ending that whilst not exactly uncompromising, is certainly shocking and less happy than audiences of the time likely would’ve expected.

 

Patrick Allen and Gwen Watford register strongly as the parents who seem to take turns being the calm, rational one or the volatile, frustrated one. Watford in particular seems like the only humane person in the room at times. Young Janina Faye does a remarkable job for someone so young. Michael Gwynn is good as a barrister, though he couldn’t do a Canadian accent to save himself. The best performance is the ghastly, effective turn by Niall MacGinnis as the ruthless opposing counsel. A remarkable performance. Despite no dialogue and few scenes to work with, old pro Aylmer plays his part perfectly as written.

 

A good, strong film that is quite serious and sobering for Hammer Studios. Well-acted, well-shot, and highly underrated and under-seen.

 

Rating: B