Child in the House (1956) User Reviews

Nice little drama

[gerry1019 · 7/10 · 18 October 2007]

This is an entertaining little drama, the child in the house being Mandy Miller of "Mandy" fame.

Mandy, playing a child by the name of Elizabeth, has been left with childless relatives while her mother is hospitalised. Her father, Stanley Baker is separated from the mother and is a character of shady background.He makes contact with his daughter who adores him but swears her to secrecy about the contact. Once again he is involved in another shady deal and indeed the police are looking for him.

The movie revolves around the loyalty of the little girl,the dislike of the lady of the house for kids and Baker, and the sympathetic man of the house character.

The movie is available on VHS and is well worth a look.

A child's loyalty

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 19 May 2019]

Happened to stumble across 'Child in the House' when staying with my godparents, where my godfather had written numerous titles of films (a very interesting list by the way, mostly consisting of films not yet seen) to watch in the evening, for each evening of my stay with them. And 'Child in the House' stood out, despite a somewhat generic title the summary when described to me was intriguing.

Watching it, while reading no reviews beforehand which were actually not a lot when checking them out afterwards, 'Child in the House' turned out to be a pleasant little film deserving of more exposure than it gets. It does not deserve to be a film that is practically forgotten. It's not perfect, great or anything to be overly thrilled by, but there is nothing here that will annoy or offend anybody in any shape or form and to me it wasn't one of those films that made me feel nauseous from any overdoses of sugar.

'Child in the House' does get a little mawkish in places agreed, particularly towards the end and occasionally the pace is a touch staid.

The ending did seem on the too neat and pat side, there was a real opportunity for the film to end on an exciting and maybe even daring note but instead played it too safe and it undermined the tension of the last portion of the film in my mind.

On the other hand, 'Child in the House' is beautifully designed, absolutely loved the interiors of the house and the equally elegant costumes. Equally attractive is the photography, which clearly loved the interiors of the house and revelled in it. The music fits well, not obtrusive or so it felt that way to me (speaking as somebody who has an issue with music, a big lifelong part of my life, being intrusive/obtrusive), and is a nice sumptuously orchestrated score in its own right. The title song is a very charming one, without being sugary, and sticks in the mind.

Script provokes thought and avoided being too melodramatic or too overly-talky, despite being a pretty dialogue-heavy film. Though will say that when seeing it that the sound was not always great, meaning with the dialogue delivery tending to be so clipped that it was not always easy hearing it. The story is engaging on the most part and didn't feel too stagy or too much of a filmed play (some may disagree and that's fine in that respect). It's also agreeably directed and performed, one does wonder as to why Mandy Miller is not better known after this because it was a very appealing performance she gave without any sugariness or precosciousness. She more than holds her own against more experienced and distinguished cast members, such as a no-nonsense Phyllis Calvert and a more sympathetic Eric Portman. Stanley Baker is the most "likeable" adult cast member and does a nice job, though Calvert and Portman (though they did have more to do) have stronger written roles.

In conclusion, pleasant. 7/10

Good but not distinguished

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 2 November 2012]

This film has a few somewhat unusual credits, including "Direction supervision and screenplay: Cy Raker Endfield. Co-director: Charles De Latour. Story from Janet McNeill's novel." Presumably De Latour performed the functions of what Hollywood calls a "dialogue director". And I like the implication that whilst Endfield cribbed the story from Janet McNeill's novel (which incidentally was actually titled "A Child in the House"), he felt at liberty to make substantial changes to incidents and characters.

As for the movie itself, "Child in the House" is what the trade used to call "a woman's picture!" It's agreeably played, competently directed, attractively photographed and has a most beautiful signature tune. The script is a bit mawkish at times, but the good moments (and there are some really imaginative touches) more than outweigh the bad.

Mandy Miller is refreshingly artless. Production values are first class.

Excellent performance by Mandy Miller

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 20 April 2016]

Mandy Miller was the only real child star of the British cinema in the fifties till Hayley Mills came along.She plays the daughter of crooked ex solicitor played by Stanley Baker,who out of misguided loyalty protects him from capture by the police.Miller is staying with her aunt,Phyllis Calvert,as her mother is critically ill in hospital.Eric Postman plays her husband.Calvert blames Postman for not reporting Baker to the police

.He blames her for enticing him into a loveliness marriage.Whilst the film promises an exciting climax it rather disappoints and it all ends rather gamely.

Staid melodrama

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 30 November 2018]

CHILD IN THE HOUSE is a rather staid and boring melodrama that offers an acting role for 'Mandy', a child actress popular in Britain in the 1950s but nowadays long forgotten. She plays a kid split between different sets of parents; the ones she's living with due to her mother's hospitalisation are divided between love and hate, while she rekindles a relationship with her absent father, a likeable dodgy geezer played by Stanley Baker. Drama is evoked by conflict between the different sets of adults and Baker's need to keep himself hidden from plain sight. This is a talky, slow-paced kind of affair, really only worth watching to enjoy the talents of various grouped performances including Percy Herbert, Dora Bryan, Eric Portman and Victor Maddern.

A house is not a home when love doesn't reside there.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 6 June 2023]

I found this to be a rather sappy domestic drama with a rather nondescript young pre-teen (Mandy Miller) sent to stay with her mother's sister (Phyllis Calvet), a Harriet Craig type, and her neglected husband (Eric Portman), while mom is in the hospital. Calvet's method of showing auntie love is to send her niece off to dance class to keep her from being underfoot, and after a polite intro, she's absolutely frigid with her, just as she is with her husband. It's obvious that Calvet only married Portman for position which he confronts her over as Calvet's neurotic behavior becomes colder.

A decent supporting cast also includes Stanley Baker as Miller's father who has lots of issues of his own, Dora Bryan as Calvet's secretary and Joan Hickson as Portman's cook, both of whom has to look after Calvet has had enough of her. Baker allegedly ripped off Portman (taking valuable cash away from the increasingly nasty aunt) which explains the family estrangement, and Miller begins to have physical ailments over being mentally abused. The dour storyline is depressing, and Calvet's heartless character is unappealing with no real justification outside of just being a cold hearted female. There's some interesting interactions with people on the streets, plus a bit by Maggie Smith in her film debut as a party guest, which had me scouring the film rather than paying full attention to the sappy story.