The scene: London's east end. When 12 years old Frankie Palmer (Andrew Ray) loses the sixpence his father has given him to buy a large yellow balloon from a street seller that 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, bomb damaged house and they are running about in the ruins when Ronnie slips and falls thirty feet 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 publican. 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 station with Len hot on the heels of Frankie, who is desperately trying to escape with his life!
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, 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 Underground station in the last reel would be very frightening for young children and Andrew Ray, 13 years old when the film was shot in 1952 and 14 years old when it was released in May, 1953, was disappointed that he wasn't allowed to go into a cinema to see his own film because he was way under the age of 16.
J. Lee-Thompson directs with a firm hand and, although the film has a cheery and light hearted first ten minutes, it soon thereafter gets more and more dramatic and menacing. The censor was right to give it an X certificate, as, although the main character is a child, this definitely isn't a kid's picture. Lee-Thompson made some excellent films in the 1950s, including Ice Cold in Alex and Tiger Bay, before going on to direct the enormously successful The Guns of Navarone. So he knew how to create tension in a picture and The Yellow Balloon is no exception to his style.
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 publican. 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 station with Len hot on the heels of Frankie, who is desperately trying to escape with his life!
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, 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 Underground station in the last reel would be very frightening for young children and Andrew Ray, 13 years old when the film was shot in 1952 and 14 years old when it was released in May, 1953, was disappointed that he wasn't allowed to go into a cinema to see his own film because he was way under the age of 16.
J. Lee-Thompson directs with a firm hand and, although the film has a cheery and light hearted first ten minutes, it soon thereafter gets more and more dramatic and menacing. The censor was right to give it an X certificate, as, although the main character is a child, this definitely isn't a kid's picture. Lee-Thompson made some excellent films in the 1950s, including Ice Cold in Alex and Tiger Bay, before going on to direct the enormously successful The Guns of Navarone. So he knew how to create tension in a picture and The Yellow Balloon is no exception to his style.