The Last Load

Before the Children's Film Foundation there was Children's Entertainment Films. Wisely they enlisted the services of John Baxter, who delivered a fast-moving yarn whose use of dramatic close-ups and dynamic editing (culminating in a rollicking showdown shot night-for-night) showed that he obviously knew his Eisenstein.

The obligatory gang of crooks are slightly less comical than in later CFF productions, but that doesn't stop one of the henchmen (SLIGHT SPOILER COMING:) from sabotaging their whole operation by stupidly tossing away a raffle ticket with vital information written on it. (It's always the little things that foil the best-laid schemes.)

A delightful lass called Angela Stewart was the prime mover of the kids, and it even found room for a cameo from dear old Sam Kydd.