''The Yellow Balloon'' is a 1953 British

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

J. Lee Thompson John Lee Thompson (1 August 1914 – 30 August 2002) was a British film director, active in London and Hollywood, best known for award-winning films such as ''Woman in a Dressing Gown'', ''Ice Cold in Alex'' and '' The Guns of Navarone'' along w ...

and starring

Andrew Ray Andrew Ray (31 May 193920 August 2003) was an English actor who was best known as a child star. Biography He was born Andrew Olden (Ray was his father's stage name) in Southgate, Middlesex, the son of the radio comic Ted Ray and his wife, sh ...

William Sylvester William Sylvester (January 31, 1922 – January 25, 1995) was an American television and film actor. His most famous film credit was Dr. Heywood Floyd in Stanley Kubrick's '' 2001 A Space Odyssey'' (1968). Life and career William Sylve ...

, Kathleen Ryan,

Kenneth More Kenneth Gilbert More, CBE (20 September 1914 – 12 July 1982) was an English film and stage actor. Initially achieving fame in the comedy '' Genevieve'' (1953), he appeared in many roles as a carefree, happy-go-lucky gent. Films from this per ...

and

Hy Hazell Hyacinth Hazel O'Higgins (4 October 1919 – 10 May 1970), stage name Hy Hazell, was a British actress of theatre, musicals and revue as well as a contralto singer and film actress. AllMusic described her as "an exuberant comic actor and lively ...

. It was Thompson's second feature as director. It was distributed by Associated British and produced by the company's Marble Arch Productions. It was made at

Elstree Studios Elstree Studios is a generic term which can refer to several current and demolished British film studios and television studios based in or around the town of Borehamwood and village of Elstree in Hertfordshire, England. Production studios ha ...

with sets designed by the art director Robert Jones.

Location shooting Location shooting is the shooting of a film or television production in a real-world setting rather than a sound stage or backlot. The location may be interior or exterior. The filming location may be the same in which the story is set (for ex ...

took place around Bayswater and

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

Plot

The film is set in the immediate aftermath of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, in London's East End, amongst the bomb sites. 12-year-old Frankie Palmer (Andrew Ray) loses the sixpence his father has given him to buy a large yellow balloon from a street seller which the boy has set his heart on. He sees that a friend of his, young Ronnie Williams (Stephen Fenemore), has already bought one and Frankie snatches it off him and runs off with it, with Ronnie in hot pursuit. Ronnie chases Frankie into a large, bombed-out house and they are running about in the ruins when Ronnie slips and falls to his death. Frankie scrambles down to help, but realises that there is nothing he can do. Hiding in the shadows and seeing it all, Len Turner (William Sylvester), a criminal on the run and using the ruins as a hideout from the police, convinces Frankie that the police will arrest the boy and charge him with the murder of his friend for pushing him to his death and that they must both make their getaway. Although Frankie and Len agree it was an accident, Len is adamant that the police will not see it that way and Frankie goes off with him. Len blackmails Frankie into stealing money from his parents (Kenneth More and Kathleen Ryan) to help fund Len's escape and then uses the boy as a decoy in a pub robbery that goes horribly wrong when Len murders the pub owner. Realising that Frankie is the only witness to his crime, Len knows he must kill the boy, too. This develops into a terrifying hide-and-seek chase through a bomb-damaged, abandoned and highly-perilous

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The ...

station, with Len hot on the heels of Frankie, who is desperately trying to escape with his life. A tube driver passing at speed through the station sees the pursuit as he speeds past the platform. He reports it at the next station and the police are alerted. They rescue Frankie. In a poetic-justice ending Len walks over a beam over a long drop before falling to his death.

Cast

as Frankie Palmer * Kathleen Ryan as Emily Palmer *

as Ted Palmer *

Bernard Lee John Bernard Lee (10 January 190816 January 1981) was an English actor, best known for his role as M in the first eleven Eon-produced James Bond films. Lee's film career spanned the years 1934 to 1979, though he had appeared on stage from ...

as PC Chapman * Stephen Fenemore as Ron Williams *

as Len *

Marjorie Rhodes Marjorie Rhodes (9 April 1897 – 4 July 1979) was a British actress. She was born Millicent Wise in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire. One of her better-known roles was as Lucy Fitton, the mother in Bill Naughton's play '' All in Good Time''. Sh ...

as Jessie Stokes * Peter Jones as Sid *

Eliot Makeham Harold Elliott Makeham (22 December 1882 – 8 February 1956) was an English film and television actor. Career Makeham was born in London, England. Between 1931 and 1956, Makeham appeared, primarily in character roles, in 115 films and in 1 ...

as Pawnbroker *

Sid James Sidney James (born Solomon Joel Cohen; 8 May 1913 – 26 April 1976) was a British actor and comedian whose career encompassed radio, television, stage and screen. He was best known for numerous roles in the Carry On film series. Born to a mi ...

as Barrow Boy *

Veronica Hurst Veronica Patricia Hurst (born Patricia Wilmshurst; 11 November 1931 – 15 November 2022) was a British film, stage and television actress. Hurst was born in Malta and brought up in Tooting, London. Early career Hurst was awarded the Leverhul ...

as Sunday School Teacher *

Sandra Dorne Sandra Dorne (born Joan Smith; 19 June 1924 – 25 December 1992) was a British actress. Career Also known as Sandra Holt, Dorne was often known in the 1950s as the B-film Diana Dors. As a platinum blonde, she was a regular female lead ...

as Iris *

Campbell Singer Campbell Singer (born Jacob Kobel Singer; 16 March 1909 – 16 February 1976) was a British character actor who featured in a number of stage, film and television roles during his long career. He was also a playwright and dramatist. Life He was ...

as Potter *

Laurie Main Laurence George "Laurie" Main (29 November 1922 – 8 February 2012) was an Australian actor best known for hosting and narrating the children's series '' Welcome to Pooh Corner'', which aired on The Disney Channel during the 1980s. Born i ...

as Bibulous Customer *

as Mary * Edward Evans as PC Patterson *

Richard O'Sullivan Richard O'Sullivan (born 7 May 1944) is an English comedy actor, who is known for his role as Robin Tripp in the 1970s sitcoms ''Man About the House'' (1973–1976) and ''Robin's Nest (TV series), Robin's Nest'' (1977–1981) and as the title c ...

as Boy Singing at Sunday School * Brenda de Banzie as Fruit Stall Customer * Hilda Barry as Newspaper Seller *

Hugh Moxey Hugh Vincent Moxey (27 September 1909, Somerset, – 9 March 1991, Wandsworth), was a British film and television actor. Moxey spanned his career for 40 years, where he was best remembered in supporting roles in 1950s British war films, incl ...

as Police Officer *

Peggy Ann Clifford Peggy Ann Clifford (23 March 1921 in Poole, Dorset – 26 May 1986, in Kensington), was an English film, stage, and television character actress. She was born Peggy Anne Hamley Champion. Her mother's maiden name was Clifford. She appeared in t ...

as Cafe Owner

Production

The film was based on an idea of Anne Burnaby. She originally wanted the character of Mary to be a prostitute but was not allowed for censorship reasons. Star Andrew Ray had just appeared in ''

The Mudlark ''The Mudlark'' is a 1950 film made in Britain by 20th Century Fox. It is a fictional account of how Queen Victoria was eventually brought out of her mourning for her dead husband, Prince Albert. It was directed by Jean Negulesco, written and ...

''. William Sylvester was an American who settled in Britain after the war. Filming had definitely begun by May, 1952, as there is an on set photograph available of Andrew Ray celebrating his 13th birthday on May 31 of that year at

blowing out the candles on his birthday cake, surrounded by his parents and other children from the film. The film was shot at

and on location around London.

Censorship

''The Yellow Balloon'' was one of the first films to be passed with the then new Adults Only "X" certificate by the

British Board of Film Censors The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organization, non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national clas ...

, which barred anyone under the age of 16 years from being allowed into a cinema to see the film. This was because the censor felt that the chase through the

station in the last reel would be very frightening for young children. Andrew Ray, 13 years old when the film was shot in 1952 and when it was released in 1953, was disappointed that he wasn't allowed to go into a cinema to see his own film because he was under the age of 16. However, after complaints from cinema exhibitors that the "X" certificate wasn't really necessary for the film and it was losing them the family audience they had relied on up until that time, the BBFC eventually relented and in October 1953 they re-classified the film with an "A" certificate (children under 16 allowed in to see the film if accompanied by an adult).

Reception

The ''Observer'' called it "a forceful and far from stupid British film which we might have appreciated more had we not seen '' The Window''." ''Variety'' said it "should chalk up modest grosses." In ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', critic

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...

wrote: "it is a leisurely sort of chiller that trades intriguingly upon a youngster's far-fetched fears...The moral is, of course, that children should speak up rather than harbor their fears. But they don't. So probably the British will be able to go right on making these variably fascinating films for years."

References

External links

*
The Yellow Balloon
at Letterbox DVD
The Yellow Balloon
at

TCMDB Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of A ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yellow Balloon, The 1953 films 1953 drama films Films about children Films directed by J. Lee Thompson Films set on the London Underground Films shot at Associated British Studios Films shot in London Allied Artists films British drama films British black-and-white films Films with screenplays by J. Lee Thompson 1950s English-language films 1950s British films