I shudder to think what the 'academics' will talk this one up. Consider: a determined group of 'little' people triumph over a gang of bullies aided no little by 'cracking' a code. I can hear them now in Film 'schools' the length and breadth of the land 'explaining' how to 'read' this as a metaphor for an England who had just won - with a little help from their friends - a major war against Germany aided by their cracking of the 'Enigma' code. I doubt whether screenwriter Tibby Clarke had anything more meaningful than a paycheque in mind when he dreamed up this yarn in which a group of unsophisticated teenagers without an 'O' level between them, uncover a plot involving a weekly comic book for boys which villains use to communicate details of proposed robberies. Alistair Sim is top-billed but as the writer of the serial he has only two scenes whilst Harry Fowler as the leader of the boys appears in virtually every one. It's all a tad gung-ho but given that it was shot in 1946 that's to be expected. Though it's an Ealing film it's meant to be serious so do try not to laugh.
Review of Hue and Cry
