Paganini Strikes Again (1977) - A CFF Film

We are continuing our coverage of Children's Film Foundation (CFF) films with Paganini Strikes Again, a rare mystery/adventure from 1977. The "Paganini" in the title refers to Mike (Andrew Bowen) and his friend Bill (Philip Bliss) who are both violin students. On their way to music class, they get stuck in the elevator of a small building and from their viewpoint are only able to see work boots of a man running up a flight of stairs. They later find out that a robbery had taken place and realize that this was the robber escaping. 

Inspector Mainwaring (John Arnatt) of the London police does not believe their shoe clue is enough to begin a search and so the boys decide to play detectives themselves and hunt down the man with the boots. Unbeknownst to them, he happens to be the uncle of one of their classmates. 

Paganini Strikes Again cannot really be classified as a mystery because everything is shown to the audience. The robbery is evident, and it is clear that Raddings (Dudley Sutton) is the criminal. However, watching the boys track him down is entertaining and for light Saturday afternoon juvenile fare (which this was intended to be) Paganini Strikes Again is pleasant enough. It doesn't rank as one of the best CFF films, nor the worst. 

Both Bowen and Bliss do a good job of acting as the young musician detectives. Bowen had done some acting previously (Bachelor Father) and would later appear in the television series Grange Hill. Dudley Sutton (Lovejoy), a veteran of British television, plays one of his usual nasty criminal roles. Arnatt is good as the Inspector, Patrick Jordan plays a detective, and Julia Dawn Cole has a small part as the sister of one of the boys. 

Paganini Strikes Again is currently not available on DVD or on Youtube, but check every once in a while as it may appear again. 

Night Ferry (1976) - A CFF Film

An ancient Egyptian mummy is stolen from The British Museum and young Jeff (Graham Fletcher) witnesses the criminals carrying the mummy case to their hiding place at the railyards. He wants to go to the police but is afraid to since it would mean confessing that he trespassed on railway property while searching for his model plane. This dangerous act caused a railway worker to be injured. Instead, he recruits his two friends, Nick (Engin Eshref) and Carol (Jayne Tottman) to keep an eye on the master criminal known as Pyramid (Bernard Cribbins) and see if they can track down the mummy themselves.

Night Ferry was one of many Children's Film Foundations distributions released in the United Kingdom during the 1970s. This one is a cut above the rest since the criminals are not the usual bungling sort, although it still is very much juvenile fare. The location scenes around London's Victoria and Clapham stations are nice and the film clips along at a good pace. It actually builds up a fair amount of tension towards the climax when the criminals discover that the children are on their trail. 

Night Ferry was directed by David Eady and written by Michael Barnes who also teamed up to produce the film. This is one of several films that they made together for the Children's Film Foundation. The child actors do an adequate job, although young Jeff was a bit wooden. Bernard Cribbins (The Railway Children, Jackanory) stars as the criminal Pyramid, a master-of-disguise who arranges crimes to order. In this case, a private collector in France wants the mummy for his own collection so they are delivering him via the night ferry across the channel. 

Also in the cast is Aubrey Morris, Jeremy Bulloch and Carole Rousseau...whom some may recognize as the host of the BBC French instructional video course A Vous La France (1984).

Since Night Ferry is only one-hour long, it was later aired on television as one episode of the children's anthology series called Once Upon a Classic, hosted by Bill Bixby. It is currently available on DVD as one of three films on the BFI's Children's Film Foundation Collection "London Tales".

A Hitch in Time ( 1978 )

What would it be like to travel back in time? This is a fantasy most children indulge in thinking about but for Paul ( Michael McVey ) and Fiona ( Pheona McLellan ) it becomes a reality when they meet Professor Wagstaff ( Patrick Troughton ) on the way to school one day. 

The professor has invented a time-traveling machine that operates on a computer named OSKA. He intends to use it to travel back in time himself but the machine cannot hold his weight and so the children volunteer to go in his place. However, when the machine begins to malfunction, Paul and Fiona realize that traveling back in time can be awfully confusing. They never know what era they are going to stop in!

"Where are we??" - Paul
"You mean, when are we?!" - Fiona 

A Hitch in Time, also known as Professor Wagstaff's Time Machine, is a fun Saturday morning children's film that was released in England through the CFF ( Children's Film Foundation ) in 1978. 

T.E.B. Clarke's script was clearly aimed towards juveniles and spirals into silliness towards the end, but the film can be appealing to adults as well, especially those who enjoy Patrick Troughton's work. It is amusing to see him in another time-traveling predicament like he often was in on Doctor Who, where he played the second Doctor. 

The story seems like it was based upon a book but T.E.B. Clarke wrote it directly for the film. Clarke was quite a popular screenwriter in England and was equally adept at writing comedies ( The Titfield Thunderbolt, The Lavender Hill Mob ) as well as dramas ( The Blue Lamp, Sons and Lovers ). A Hitch in Time is definitely more amusing than dramatic and Clarke adds a few clever touches to the story to make it less predictable than one may think. What is especially clever is that the children continually run into ancestors of "old Sniffy" ( Jeff Rawle of Harry Potter fame ), the schoolmaster Paul dislikes, and Fiona's grandfather.

The film has a runtime of less than one hour which speeds along like a flash of light. It is available online to rent via the BFI Player and is also available on the DVD collection of CFF films called Weird Adventures. 

Wings of Mystery ( 1963 )

The Children's Film Foundation made a number of good little mysteries in the 1960s, one of which was Wings of Mystery, released in 1963. This British film tells the story of a brother and sister ( Hennie Scott and a young Judy Geeson ) who try to help their brother Ted ( Richard Carpenter ) when he is accused of stealing a new secret alloy from the iron plant where he works. The children suspect McCarthy, another employee, who will be taking a trip to Belgium to race pigeons. They believe he snuck the alloy sample out of the plant by tying it to the feet of a pigeon and will be selling it to foreign agents. Since the children are also avid pigeons racers, they follow him to Belgium in an attempt to apprehend him. 

Pigeon racing films are quite rare and this is one of the best in the genre. Audiences get to witness some splendid action shots of the pigeons in flight, especially that of Sir Lancelot who was the lead pigeon in Wings of Mystery. 

Unfortunately, the performances of the human actors are rather stiff, but CFF films were never known for featuring quality acting ( most of them cast new young actors or children from the villages where the pictures were being filmed ). Wings of Mystery does have one talented youngster - Judy Geeson, who was only 15 years old at the time. Geeson would go on to have quite a long career in both film and television starring opposite Sidney Poitier in To Sir, with Love ( 1967 ), Joan Crawford in Berserk ( 1968 ), and John Wayne in Brannigan ( 1975 ). 

Also in the cast is Patrick Jordan, Arnold Ridley, and Anthony Jacobs. The movie is only 55-minutes long so it is worth checking out, and if you enjoy it, take a peek at Sky Pirates ( 1977 ), another CFF release, this time with children who use their model airplanes to battle diamond smugglers. 

Hunted in Holland ( 1961 ) - A Children's Film Foundation Production

For many years, Britain exercised an entertainment tax on its citizens which was charged when anyone indulged in sitting in the dark comfort of a motion picture theater. Proceeds from this tax ( known as the Eady Levy ) went towards British-based film producers for the production of.... more films, of course! 

The Children's Film Foundation was a non-profit film production organization formed in 1951 and was primarily subsided by this levy. It provided youngsters with a steady stream of relatively innocent fare that they could enjoy in the theater or on television on a rainy day ( which occurred quite often ) or when their parents happened to desire them out of the house. 

Over the course of thirty-five years ( 1951-1985 ) the "CFF" released nearly 180 films ranging in subject matter from traditional cops-and-robbers adventures to elaborate sci-fi stories and dramas dealing with runaways. 

When the Eady Levy was abolished in 1985, the CFF ceased producing new films and entertainment for the little tykes was once again left in the hands of independent filmmakers. 

In recent years, gems from the CFF archives ( now curated by the British Film Institute ) have been released on DVD in appropriately themed sets and, since I have a weakness for juvenile entertainment - being of that mind  - I have slowly been indulging in these films. Hence, a new series of reviews will be born - The Children's Film Foundation series - and Hunted in Holland is the subject of the first of these reviews. 

This film follows the adventures of an English lad who gets tangled up with diamond smugglers during his visit to Holland. Like most of the CFF productions, Hunted in Holland runs a mere 60 minutes ( childrens' attention spans are rather short ), and features beautiful locales, a jolly good script, but alas, lame acting that carries on at a snail's pace. All of the films could have used the magical "Disney touch" but since they are British productions, we'll just assume that speed wasn't a trait that they were anxious to foster in their youngsters. 

Sean Scully, who would later appear in Walt Disney's Almost Angels ( 1962 ), stars as Tim, the English boy, who is spending a week-long holiday in Holland with his penpal Piet, portrayed by Jacques Verbrugge. Verbrugge is an engaging young lad, not unlike the Quebecois child-star Gilles Payant. Along with his sister Aanike ( Sandra Spurr ), the two boys head into Holland's countryside via bicycle to meet up with Piet's parents who operate a channel boat...but their journey turns into an adventure when they discover that a diamond smuggler is tailing them to retrieve a bracelet that they inadvertently picked up. 

Hunted in Holland manages to pack in quite a bit of adventure in its short run-time but, due to the amateur acting talent and simple direction ( by Derek Williams ), it lacks that punch that could have made it a children's classic. Nevertheless, there are some great scenes involving the Dutch thugs: the introductory theft of the bracelet by a man in drag, the stuffing of the hot jewels in a hollow cheese wheel, and a chase through a greenhouse....which includes a scene that pays tribute to Louis Lumière's 1895 short silent film L'Arroseur Arrosé.

Currently, Hunted in Holland is not available on DVD in the United States or abroad, but since an existing print is available it is probably only a matter of time before it appears on a BFI issued CFF collection.