Adventure in the Hopfields

These CFF films of the 1950s are a useful record of how the ideal 1950s childhood was, they are not all that far away from reality however as children of the 1950s and 60s actually had a childhood unlike now when they are expected to be adults by the age of ten spending far too much time with electronic gadgets.

This 1954 film from the Children's Film Foundation (CFF) survives now in this version which says it was revised in 1972, although we don't know what was revised.

Little Jenny (Mandy Miller) breaks her mother's china dog and so decides to go with neighbor's to work in the hop fields to earn money to buy a replacement. Straightforward plot then follows her adventures in the hopfields while her parents try to find her.

This time capsule shows street signs advertising for families to "vacation" in Kent and earn money by picking hops. Film opens with a frenzy of activity as all the families on Jenny's street rush to catch the train to Goudhurst, Kent.

Jenny hides out with a neighboring family but also has an adventure in an old mill with two nasty ragamuffins who engage in several fights with the hopfield kids. It's never explained where these two boys come from, but they apparently meant to be gypsies.

Miller is fine as the girl. Several familiar faces in the cast include Mona Washbourne as Mrs. McBain, Hilda Fenemore and Russell Waters as the girl's parents, Harold Lang as Sam Hines, and Dandy Nichols as Mrs. Harris. Among the kids are Melvin Hayes and Leon Garcia as the ragamuffins, and Jane Asher as one of the McBain kids.

The film was found in a rubbish bin in Chicago, and a film collector in England bought the film sight unseen. The long-lost film finally had its "premiere" in Goudhurst in 2002 with several of the film's children in attendance.

When Mandy Miller breaks her mother's treasured china dog, she comes down with a brainstorm and runs away in hopes of a working vacation in Kent without telling anyone.

Having seen half a dozen of these Children's Film Foundation movies, I thought I knew what to expect: some great scenic photography and some heavy-handed moralizing about how good children should behave -- as decreed by people who no longer remembered being children, had no children themselves, or who believed the lies their children told them. What I found was a very well told story directed by John Guillerman with a frequently subjective camera that evoked very nicely the fears and simple moral narratives of children. If it gets heavy-handed at the end, with a melodramatic rescue from a burning mill, at least the evil-doers are ambiguously repentant -- they never expected anyone to get hurt, really, they were just having a bit of a laugh.

I doubt the moralisers will be very pleased with this movie. However, I was.

Just saw this movie on Talking Pictures on UK TV. Brilliant copy and good film.

Watched this in the mid to late sixties on German TV and was always trying to find a copy. Is there anybody out there who has one and would be willing to make a copy for me? I'm looking for this one for more than 40 years. This would be a dream come true! My e-mail address is waldenpond88@hotmail.com.

The British Children's Film Foundation (CFF) produced lots of very good and very thrilling movies for kids in the fifties and until the mid sixties. Everything that has been made after 1966 is unfortunately not nearly as good as the early black & white films.

Rank Screen Services and Rayant Pictures were among the movie production companies who made movies for CFF.

The CFF has been founded by Mary Field.

This film was on the German channel Pro7 in the summer of 1989. Unfortunately I missed recording it. I hope somebody was smarter than me, recorded it and later transfered it to DVD.