The four Liverpudlian lads that Johnny meets were all amateurs, not child actors.
At the time of the film's release, James Robertson Justice was standing for Parliament as a Labour candidate in Angus and Kincardine. This is was the reason for his choice of a pseudonym when appearing in this film.
For her Picture Show weekly film magazine column "Round the British Studios", Edith Nepean interviewed William Fox, star of "The Magnet" on the set at Ealing Studios in the summer of 1950. There, she met the boy who played the leading role with Stephen Murray and Kay Walsh. Pleasant faced; boyish; with fair hair and an enchanting smile, eleven years old William Fox, she observed, should have a brilliant future before him on the screen. He had already been seen playing Greer Garson's son in "The Miniver Story". "The Magnet" was his second film.
William told her that he was a Sussex schoolboy, "born in London", he said, "but brought up at Cuckfield, near Hayward's Heath". He never had the slightest intention of taking up acting, in spite of the fact that the theatre was in his blood. His father was a leading theatrical agent, related to the Neilson - Terry family, and his mother was an actress before her marriage.
It was through a visit by Mr Fox that his son came to face a film camera. He was visiting the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios at Elstree on behalf of a client, but the powers that be were not interested in an adult player. They urgently want a boy actor to play the part of Greer Garson's son," he was told. Half banteringly, William's father observed that the only one he knew was his own then ten years old son. But the light-hearted suggestion was taken seriously. William was tested and given the part, and it was on the strength of his work in "The Miniver Story" that M-G-M put forward his name when Ealing Studios were looking for a boy to play the important part of the central character in "The Magnet".
Edith found fair-haired William full of high spirits, extremely sensitive and impulsive, and noted that there was no doubt that he would prefer cricket and cycling to film acting. But he treated acting as a great game. He kept his peep into the world of film making very much to himself, and when he was taken away from school from time to time to go to the studios, he made up a story about going to the dentist. However, his school friends became suspicious of William's repeated visits to the dentist, and eventually they discovered the truth, that their school mate was well on the road to becoming a screen star.
William told her that he was a Sussex schoolboy, "born in London", he said, "but brought up at Cuckfield, near Hayward's Heath". He never had the slightest intention of taking up acting, in spite of the fact that the theatre was in his blood. His father was a leading theatrical agent, related to the Neilson - Terry family, and his mother was an actress before her marriage.
It was through a visit by Mr Fox that his son came to face a film camera. He was visiting the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios at Elstree on behalf of a client, but the powers that be were not interested in an adult player. They urgently want a boy actor to play the part of Greer Garson's son," he was told. Half banteringly, William's father observed that the only one he knew was his own then ten years old son. But the light-hearted suggestion was taken seriously. William was tested and given the part, and it was on the strength of his work in "The Miniver Story" that M-G-M put forward his name when Ealing Studios were looking for a boy to play the important part of the central character in "The Magnet".
Edith found fair-haired William full of high spirits, extremely sensitive and impulsive, and noted that there was no doubt that he would prefer cricket and cycling to film acting. But he treated acting as a great game. He kept his peep into the world of film making very much to himself, and when he was taken away from school from time to time to go to the studios, he made up a story about going to the dentist. However, his school friends became suspicious of William's repeated visits to the dentist, and eventually they discovered the truth, that their school mate was well on the road to becoming a screen star.
Jane Bough' debut.
Thea Gregory's debut.
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