Never Take Sweets from a Stranger

Daring Hammer film dealing with paedophilia in small town Canada – although filmed in Britain under Cyril Frankel’s sensitive direction. Based on the play The Pony Cart by Roger Garis, the audacious for its time story conveys the Canadian atmosphere remarkably well and builds towards a surprisingly disturbing climax. Both Gwen Watford and Patrick Allen are completely credible while Alison Leggatt is well-served by John Hunter’s script as a pragmatic and cynical grandmother. The outstanding Felix Aylmer doesn’t utter a word throughout but gives a terrifyingly accurate study of decaying evil.

An English couple emigrate to the small Canadian town of Jamestown. The father, Peter Carter, takes up the post of headmaster at a local school, but then his nine-year-old daughter Jean is encouraged to dance naked by elderly local bigwig Clarence Olderberry Sr., the Carter’s instigate a sexual abuse case. In court the distraught parents run into a wall of antipathy from the townspeople who side with the man who has helped to build their prosperous town. However, despite having spent time in a sanatorium and previous abuse incidents on record, the case is lost and Olderberry is set free. Later, when Jean and Lucille are playing in the woods, Clarence Olderberry appears and begins to pursue the children. —Britmovie.co.uk