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1935-02-05
N/A
70 min
Erich Kästner’s beloved novel has been adapted for film or television six times since its publication in 1929; this 1935 British version was the first in English. Believed lost for decades, it was recently rediscovered by the BFI and has now been restored. The film moves the action from Berlin to London, where Emil goes to stay with his grandmother and cousin. Thereafter, the tale of Emil’s adventures with a gang of streetwise London children faithfully follows the original plot.
John Williams is "Emil", a young lad who is the victim of a robbery whilst travelling on a train to visit his grandmother. Suspicious of the "Man in the Bowler Hat" (George Hayes) it falls to him and group of London street urchins to recover this quite substantial amount of cash. Some British cinema-goers may recall the Children's Film Foundation films, and this comes across very much as they do. Essentially for children, this adventure gives a collection of youngsters the chance to have some fun on screen and for the Saturday morning audience to join in. The oddly placed audio effects spoil it rather, but it is still a well produced little effort with a solid cast, a little scripted humour and Williams and Clare Greet as his grannie manage to keep this moving along quite well. Not really for the grown ups, but as an example of what kept us all amused almost a century ago, it is still worth a gander
