‘Never Take Sweets From a Stranger’ or — A Town Called Malice?
(No spoilers)
I was worried about watching Hammer’s ‘Never Take Sweets From a Stranger’ (1960) as I wasn’t too sure if I wanted to watch a film about child abuse and paedophilia, even though I’d heard it is considered one of Hammer’s best movies and one that tackles a difficult subject in an intelligent manner. Plus I’d had the blu ray sitting on my shelf for almost a year and I was starting to feel it taunt me for being a coward. I just didn’t want anything horrible to happen! Well, let’s find out.
The story revolves around the Carter family who have just moved to Canada from Britain so Peter Carter (Patrick Allen) can take the position of the local school’s headmaster. This is a close knit community who gently tease the Carters for being outsiders, yet things turn decidedly more serious when the Carter’s 9 year old daughter, Jean, tells her parents that she and her friend were offered sweets by the town’s elderly patrician, Clarence Olderberry Sr., in return for performing certain acts that might appear innocent to a child but to adult ears come as a revolting shock. The problem is the Olderberry family effectively built and run the town so the old man is, pretty much, untouchable. Besides, it’s only Jane’s word against the Olderberry’s and you know what children’s hyperactive imaginations are like.
From here on the film follows the Carter’s as they attempt to bring Clarence Olderberry to justice, although it might not be the long arm of the law that is closing in on the aging perv but that it’s a close-knit community closing ranks for self-protection. Plus, the Olderberry family is powerful and soon makes it clear that any court case, any investigation into their family, will result in an ordeal more traumatic for Jane than the initial crime itself. Do her parents want to bring an old man down at the expense of their daughter’s well being?
Oh dear. What will happen to poor Jane?!
So ‘Never Take Sweets From a Stranger’ immediately packs a punch from the get-go and that feeling of shock never dissipates, in fact only increases, throughout the movie. Fortunately (and thankfully!) the initial crime occurs right at the start and entirely off-screen so there’s zero gratuity or exploitation here but when we hear Jane’s account it is still a sickening jolt. It is also all we need to set everything else in motion.
After this it’s the Carters against the townsfolk, all of whom benefit in some way from the wealth of the Olderberry family. One of the few bastions of possible impartiality is the local judge but even he is aware of his limitations, the prejudices of the jury and the fact that there’s a difference between what is morally and legally wrong. Then there’s the legal team for the defense who might just be as dangerous to Jane’s mental health as old man Clarence. At least, that’s what they want the Carters to think.
What all this does is throw up a load of questions regarding abuse, the protection of children, small town thinking and the brutality of the legal system when dealing with such matters and does so with a striking amount of delicate nuance. It is gripping, unsettling and intelligent.
Until the last twenty minutes that is when delicate nuance is jettisoned for scares and a lumbering monster chase. It all starts to get a little silly but avoids destroying everything that preceded it by also being legitimately terrifying. At one point I was almost rolling my eyes at the slightly daft turn the movie seemed to be taking only to be freaking out in fear seconds later, fear which was only accentuated by one of the most horrifying cut-aways I’ve seen. When we discover what has happened, what we weren’t allowed to look at, I was even more distressed!
The widescreen, black and white cinematography by Freddie Francis means that a film with a potentially “grubby” premise is fantastically well shot, often beautifully radiant, and the score by Elizabeth Lutyens is robust and effective. Cyril Frankel keeps a tight grasp on the directing (apparently he was an expert on working with children hence why he was offered the job here), keeping the court scenes believable but also knowing when to ramp up the tension and aesthetics when needed.
‘Never Take Sweets From a Stranger’ is quite something and must have been groundbreaking in its day. It’s a social message film about an incredibly uncomfortable subject but is also a court drama, an outsider vs. community tale and a manhunt movie all wrapped up in a tight 81 minutes. If this film was remade today it would be twice that length but only half as taut.
This is a very good film. It might also be the scariest movie Hammer ever made.
