''Johnny on the Run'' is a 1953 adventure film directed by

Lewis Gilbert Lewis Gilbert (6 March 1920 – 23 February 2018) was an English film director, producer and screenwriter who directed more than 40 films during six decades; among them such varied titles as '' Reach for the Sky'' (1956), ''Sink the Bismarck!' ...

. It was produced by the

Children's Film Foundation The Children's Film Foundation (CFF) was a non-profit organisation which made films for children in the United Kingdom originally to be shown as part of childrens' Saturday morning matinée cinema programming. The films typically were about 55 ...

It includes documentary footage of streets in the south side of Edinburgh in the early 1950s and of rural

Perthshire Perthshire (locally: ; gd, Siorrachd Pheairt), officially the County of Perth, is a historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, ...

Plot

In Edinburgh, young Polish boy Janek/Johnny lives with his aunt and cousins. He feels an outcast in the home. One day when he is out pushing his baby cousin in a pram a group of boys start to taunt him about being Polish and a fight begins, during which the pram rolls off. Janek chases after it with a growing crowd chasing. He catches the pram at the head of a flight of steps. His aunt materialises and calls him a wicked boy. The crowd mills behind her. Janek is scared and runs off through the alleys. He ends on Princes Street and sees a poster for trips to his homeland of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

in a travel agent. He goes in and is told the cheapest way to travel is a ship from

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

to Danzig which costs £17. He sneaks into the back of a removal lorry labelled Dundee. Arriving at night he encounters two thieves trying to break into a house. They tell him that they have lost their key and get him to climb in the fanlight to unlock the door. They get him to wait in the hall while they steal a brooch from a safe. The phone rings and they are startled. They run off just as a policeman arrives. The men split and one takes Janek. They get a lift north in the back of a lorry but start to fight and fall out. In the middle of the night they go to a remote cottage where an old man lets them sleep on his floor. Janek runs off while they sleep going further north. He shelters in ruined castle and the next day a group of children find him and take him to their special school in

. The children call him Johnny. The headmaster takes his photo and he appears in the newspaper which asks "do you know this boy" Back in Edinburgh the police see the photo and ask his aunt why she never reported the boy as missing. The crooks also see the newspaper and head north to find Janek because they hid the brooch in his jacket. They find the school and search for the brooch in the school safe. Meanwhile Janek heads a paper chase cross country run. The police arrive and interview the headmaster. The girls (who are not part of the paper chase) explore the lockers and find the brooch. A little black girl decides to wear it as Janek likes her. The crooks join the cross country race and catch Janek in a church with one of the girls who has the brooch. Janek rings the church bell and everyone including the police arrive. His aunt comes but Janek says he wants to say at the school.

Cast

*Eugeniusz Chylek as Janek (Johnny) *

Sydney Tafler Sydney Tafler (31 July 1916 – 8 November 1979) was an English actor who after having started his career on stage, was best remembered for numerous appearances in films and television from the 1940s to the 1970s. Personal life Tafler was bor ...

as 'Flash Harry' Fisher * Michael Balfour as 'Fingers' Brown *

Jean Anderson Jean Anderson (12 December 1907 – 1 April 2001) was an English actress best remembered for her television roles as hard-faced matriarch Mary Hammond in the BBC drama '' The Brothers'' (1972–1976) and as rebellious aristocrat Lady Jocelyn " ...

as Mrs. MacIntyre *

Moultrie Kelsall Moultrie Rowe Kelsall (24 October 1904 – 13 February 1980)Biographical info

as Mr. MacIntyre *

Mona Washbourne Mona Lee Washbourne (27 November 1903 – 15 November 1988) was an English actress of stage, film, and television. Her most critically acclaimed role was in the film '' Stevie'' (1978), late in her career, for which she was nominated for a Gold ...

as Mrs. MacGregor *Margaret McCourt as Janet MacGregor *

Keith Faulkner Keith Faulkner (born 25 July 1936) is a British-born Australian actor. Early life Faulkner was born in Richmond, Surrey. He started his career at Corona Academy at the age of eleven and moved on to a career in film and television in the late 195 ...

as Kenneth MacGregor *

Cleo Sylvestre Cleopatra Mary Palmer (née Sylvestre; born 19 April 1945), known professionally as Cleo Sylvestre, is an English actress in film, stage and television. She was the first black woman ever to play a leading role at the National Theatre in Lond ...

(Cleopatra Sylvestre) as Susie *

John Laurie John Paton Laurie (25 March 1897 – 23 June 1980) was a Scottish actor. In the course of his career, Laurie performed on the stage and in films as well as television. He is perhaps best remembered for his role in the sitcom ''Dad's Army'' (196 ...

as the Edinburgh policeman

Critical reception

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

'' gave the film three out of five stars, and wrote, "This well-paced film is particularly strong in its realistic depiction of children"; and ''Nothing But The Night'' wrote, "With its beautifully photographed images of Edinburgh’s Old Town and some utterly beguiling landscape shots of the main

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

settings which were filmed around

Loch Earn Loch Earn (Scottish Gaelic language, Scottish Gaelic, ''Loch Eire/Loch Éireann'') is a freshwater loch in the southern Scottish Highlands, highlands of Scotland, in the districts of Perth and Kinross and Stirling (council area), Stirling. Th ...

, this is perhaps one of the CFF’s classiest looking titles, bolstered by fine art direction from

Hammer A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nails into wood, to shape metal (as w ...

’s Bernard Robinson and a lyrical orchestral score by

Antony Hopkins Antony Hopkins CBE (21 March 1921 – 6 May 2014) was a composer, pianist, and conductor, as well as a writer and radio broadcaster. He was widely known for his books of musical analysis and for his radio programmes ''Talking About Music'', b ...

References

External links

* * {{Lewis Gilbert 1953 films Films directed by Lewis Gilbert British black-and-white films 1953 adventure films British adventure films Films scored by Antony Hopkins 1950s English-language films 1950s British films