Never Take Sweets from a Stranger-1960
Director Cyril Frankel
Starring Patrick Allen, Gwen Watford
Scott’s Review #900
Reviewed May 17, 2019
Grade: A
Never Take Sweets from a Stranger (modified to Never Take Candy from a Stranger in the US for marketing purposes) is a 1960 British film, directed by Cyril Frankel and released by Hammer Film Productions.
The film contains brilliant cinematography, and a cerebral quality, and is quite daring for the time made. It combines a story of pedophilia with manipulations of the legal system allowing those to get away with this most heinous crime because of their status.
Despite the production company name and marketed as horror, the film is more left of center than the traditional genre film.
The locale is a small, sleepy lakefront Canadian town, seemingly like an everyday US town. The Carter family (Peter, Sally, and 9-year-old daughter Jean) have just moved to allow Peter a fantastic job opportunity as the school principal.
Jean confides to her parents that while playing in the woods, she and her friend, Lucille, went into the house of an elderly man who asked them to remove their clothes and dance naked for him in return for some candy, which they did.
Peter and Sally are appalled and decide to file a complaint. The elderly man is one of the wealthiest and most influential in the town, the respected Clarence Olderberry, Sr.
Surprisingly, Jean’s experience is downplayed, and the Carter family is largely shunned by the town. As a trial against Olderberry commences, Jean is ridiculed on the stand and her story ripped to shreds by attorneys.
After Olderberry is acquitted he pursues Jean and Lucille in the woods eventually catching the girls during a harrowing lakefront chase and murdering Lucille. Jean escapes and the truth is revealed to the shocked and devastated town.
The cast of Never Take Sweets from a Stranger are not household names, but each gives a fine performance.
Patrick Allen and Gwen Watford as the parents are well-cast and believable. They are upstanding people but strangers in the town, wanting to protect their daughter without smothering.
Felix Aylmer as old-man Olderberry plays the role not as dastardly or menacing but by providing glimpses of pain and sympathy. The audience is unclear whether the man suffers from dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, perhaps not even knowing what he has done.
The black-and-white cinematography is gorgeous, surreal, and tremendously effective.
With ghostly tones, the film gets off to a mysterious and prominent start as we see Jean and Lucille casually playing in the woods, startled to glance up at a menacing mansion (perfect for a Hammer production) to see elderly Olderberry leering at them with binoculars.
The lakefront sequences and the chase through the woods are among the best at providing superior camera angles.
As it’s Lucille who talks Jean into entering Oldberry’s house we presume she has done this type of thing before. She knows Oldberry will provide the girls with candy, but does she understand this comes at a price?
Immediately there is a shred of doubt placed on the children’s innocence- ever so quickly. This decision by the film along with the representation of Oldberry is pivotal to casting even the slightest doubt on the motivations or decisions of the main characters.
Comparisons to the brilliant The Night of the Hunter (1955) must be made. Themes of child abuse, young children in front and center roles, a creepy lake with a prominent boat, and macabre adults are prevalent, at least to some degree, in both films.
Additionally, both films were shunned at the time of release, misunderstood, and later rediscovered, subsequently seen as treasures of brilliant film making. Measuring both films as tragedies is also obvious; each results in pain and sadness for the children involved.
Never Take Sweets from a Stranger (1960) is a film released decades ahead of its time that has taken years for its brilliance to be recognized and appreciated, adding nuances that are admirable and thought-provoking to the viewer.
The subtle qualities make this film a world of its own. Sadly, the very best of films are often overlooked, marinating the flavorful juices rather than a sudden bombastic reaction.
In 1960 the world was not ready for this film but is now poised to be remembered as a brave, disturbing, and relevant film offering.