This delightful little movie was something shown to children many years ago in grade school. Do you recall school movies projected on screens in dimmed classrooms? I did not see this at such a tender young age. Rather, I viewed it in a crowded movie theater as a "short" before the main attraction. To this day I cannot say if it was intended as humor, or to provoke thought...
I repeat: The movie is intended for children. The "stars" look to be about eight years old. They are doing everything children do - running around the park, going to the movies, buying candy at the local store. The cars, clothes, and street scenes are very dated. As we watch, there is a man's calm voice telling us what to do when we are around strangers. As he mentions this, a stranger appears, and we know what the narrator means. The friendly adults are no longer around, and the kids are innocently playing. They are unaware of danger. The stranger looks like he has bad intentions, with his grubbiness and shifty eyes! He watches, and slowly approaches the children; a perfect predator in action.
This stranger is so clearly "bad" that we don't need to be warned! There are other bad characters, all waiting alone and stalking the children with evil intentions. They are getting ready to pounce! Surprisingly, one of them is a woman. After dealing with these shifty-eyed strangers in different parts of the city, the narrator introduces us to adults we CAN trust: People like policemen and clergymen(!), friendly and trustworthy. We are told that we should trust these smiling folks, and not the grubby ones with the shifty eyes.
The two character types, good and bad, are then compared with street lights. A good character gets a "green light" of trust, while a bad character gets a "red light". Proceed no further with them!
It certainly is important that children should be warned about strangers. Unfortunately in real life, predators (and other bad people) don't always look bad. The predators that I have seen on television news reports have looked like regular guys, and certainly would not have be marked as "bad" in this movie.
So, a better warning for children would be this: Be cautious around ALL strangers, even the ones that look okay! As this was made in the sixties, for children no less, it's very tame. There is no graphic content.
I repeat: The movie is intended for children. The "stars" look to be about eight years old. They are doing everything children do - running around the park, going to the movies, buying candy at the local store. The cars, clothes, and street scenes are very dated. As we watch, there is a man's calm voice telling us what to do when we are around strangers. As he mentions this, a stranger appears, and we know what the narrator means. The friendly adults are no longer around, and the kids are innocently playing. They are unaware of danger. The stranger looks like he has bad intentions, with his grubbiness and shifty eyes! He watches, and slowly approaches the children; a perfect predator in action.
This stranger is so clearly "bad" that we don't need to be warned! There are other bad characters, all waiting alone and stalking the children with evil intentions. They are getting ready to pounce! Surprisingly, one of them is a woman. After dealing with these shifty-eyed strangers in different parts of the city, the narrator introduces us to adults we CAN trust: People like policemen and clergymen(!), friendly and trustworthy. We are told that we should trust these smiling folks, and not the grubby ones with the shifty eyes.
The two character types, good and bad, are then compared with street lights. A good character gets a "green light" of trust, while a bad character gets a "red light". Proceed no further with them!
It certainly is important that children should be warned about strangers. Unfortunately in real life, predators (and other bad people) don't always look bad. The predators that I have seen on television news reports have looked like regular guys, and certainly would not have be marked as "bad" in this movie.
So, a better warning for children would be this: Be cautious around ALL strangers, even the ones that look okay! As this was made in the sixties, for children no less, it's very tame. There is no graphic content.
