Returns Policy
If you are unhappy with your purchase, you can return it to us within 14 days. More details
MovieMail's Review
A dark and atmospheric psychological British drama starring a young John Howard Davies, the film's haunting expressionism is reminiscent of Ealing’s Dead of Night says Julian Upton.
Sterling stuff from the Rank / Two Cities stable, The Rocking Horse Winner, based on a dark parable by D.H. Lawrence, is brisk and exhilarating while retaining the shadows at the soul of the story.
10 year-old Paul Grahame (the late John Howard Davies) is anxious to make his mother (Valerie Hobson) happy. Her reckless spending has brought the outwardly well-to-do family to the brink of ruin. The ineffectual Mr Grahame doesn’t help; he just loses money on the gee-gees. It’s left to Mrs Grahame’s brother, a wealthy racing enthusiast, to keep bailing them out.
On receiving a sturdy rocking horse for Christmas, Paul finds the spirit of ‘luckiness’ embracing him; names of dead-certs spring to his lips while at the height of frenzied riding sessions atop the wooden steed. Passing the tips on to the family gardener, Bassett (John Mills), who puts on the bets for him, Paul amasses a small fortune. But his method of picking winners takes a grip on his health and sanity.
For all its surface polish, this is unsettling stuff, and its writer-director Anthony Pelissier does not shy away from the story’s complex undercurrents. He and cinematographer Desmond Dickinson evoke a haunting expressionism reminiscent not just of the German cinema of the 1920s but also the standout episodes of Ealing’s Dead of Night. Pelissier’s career as a film director petered out after this and he went to work for the BBC, but on this evidence he could have given Michael Powell a run for his money.
John Mills, also the film’s producer, is typically generous as the reliable Bassett; he stands back manfully, a voice of humble decency, while Hobson, Squire and Davies go for the flashier performances. But the true star of the film is its flamboyant, chiaroscuro visual style, particularly in the scenes where a feverish Paul, hungry for his mother’s approval, maniacally rocks his horse to a prophetic climax. Would-be psychologists have had a field day with it.
A dark, atmospheric and complex psychological British drama, adapted from DH Lawrence's story about a young boy (a 10 year-old John Howard Davies) who receives a rocking horse for Christmas and soon learns that he is able to pick the winning horse at the races - to the delight of his spendthrift mother (Valerie Hobson) and his hopeless gambler of a father (Hugh Sinclair).
Young Paul teams up with Bassett the servant (John Mills, who also produced the film), with the two of them forming a profitable partnership - yet the house continually whispers to Paul that it needs more money, with this need exacting a high price.
"Classic Drama, Highly Recommended!" -
David1947 on 2nd September 2011
Despite the loud trumpetings for Oliver Twist (1948), in which he played the title role, The Rocking Horse Winner (1949), a dramatic and haunting tale of the supernatu... more >
Despite the loud trumpetings for Oliver Twist (1948), in which he played the title role, The Rocking Horse Winner (1949), a dramatic and haunting tale of the supernatural, based on the famous D H Lawrence short story, was undoubtedly the late John Howard Davies' finest film as a child actor. He was only ten years old when he made it, but was old for his age and turned in a mesmerising performance.
For those who have never seen this British classic, don't be fooled by the title. This is definitely not a kid's picture. In fact, it plays like a missing segment out of Dead Of Night, except that here, instead of a haunted mirror or a haunted ventriloquist's dummy, we have a haunted rocking horse and, in fact, the most evil looking rocking horse in film history. Watching this film would give some young children nightmares for years and they would never want to get on a rocking horse ever again. A superbly made film. Everything about it is top notch; acting; direction; photography and William Alwyns music score is both haunting and dramatic in all the right places and the music that accompanies Pauls last frantic ride on the evil looking rocking horse is still one of the most ominous pieces of film music ever composed.
I highly recommend this classic film.
< less
