Give Hammer Studios credit for this one: they were ahead of the curve in exploring one of the most distasteful real-life horrors of them all. This isn't one of their period Gothics that tend towards the utterly fantastic. It's all too uncomfortably real. It REALLY hits a nerve, even if you, like this viewer, are not yet a parent. The corruption and despoiling of innocence is one of the worst things that we can imagine.
Taking place in an Eastern Canadian village, but with a cast still largely consisting of British actors, it tells a tale (based on a play by Roger Garis) of happy married couple Peter and Sally Carter (Patrick Allen, Gwen Watford) who've come to this community where he will be a school principal. Very soon after arriving, their daughter Jean (Janina Faye) and her new friend Lucille (Frances Green) are victimized by elderly pervert Clarence Olderberry Sr. (Felix Aylmer, Polonius in Oliviers' "Hamlet"). The Carters find the path to justice a tricky one to navigate, since the Olderberry family retains such influence in the area.
Marked by some very effective acting (Niall MacGinnis as the defence attorney, Alison Leggatt as Watfords' mother, Bill Nagy the old creeps' power-wielding son, Michael Gwynn as the prosecutor, and MacDonald Parke as the judge, et al.), "Never Take Sweets from a Stranger" plays out in a reasonably believable way, with all sorts of arguments being thrown about for how to proceed, and the facts of the matter. Olderberry Jr., understandably enough, has a hard time believing that his father could be such a monster, even though the old man DID spend time in a sanitarium.
Exceptionally well shot in black & white widescreen by Freddie Francis (one of the greats in his field), this is overall a well made film and compellingly told story, which leads to positively chilling events.
The material is handled is a respectably delicate manner by the filmmakers (including writer John Hunter and director Cyril Frankel), and fortunately does not tend towards the sensational, preferring to remain fairly low-key.
Eight out of 10.
Taking place in an Eastern Canadian village, but with a cast still largely consisting of British actors, it tells a tale (based on a play by Roger Garis) of happy married couple Peter and Sally Carter (Patrick Allen, Gwen Watford) who've come to this community where he will be a school principal. Very soon after arriving, their daughter Jean (Janina Faye) and her new friend Lucille (Frances Green) are victimized by elderly pervert Clarence Olderberry Sr. (Felix Aylmer, Polonius in Oliviers' "Hamlet"). The Carters find the path to justice a tricky one to navigate, since the Olderberry family retains such influence in the area.
Marked by some very effective acting (Niall MacGinnis as the defence attorney, Alison Leggatt as Watfords' mother, Bill Nagy the old creeps' power-wielding son, Michael Gwynn as the prosecutor, and MacDonald Parke as the judge, et al.), "Never Take Sweets from a Stranger" plays out in a reasonably believable way, with all sorts of arguments being thrown about for how to proceed, and the facts of the matter. Olderberry Jr., understandably enough, has a hard time believing that his father could be such a monster, even though the old man DID spend time in a sanitarium.
Exceptionally well shot in black & white widescreen by Freddie Francis (one of the greats in his field), this is overall a well made film and compellingly told story, which leads to positively chilling events.
The material is handled is a respectably delicate manner by the filmmakers (including writer John Hunter and director Cyril Frankel), and fortunately does not tend towards the sensational, preferring to remain fairly low-key.
Eight out of 10.