One of a handful - Oliver Twist, Tom Brown's Schooldays - made by the child actor in the late forties/early fifties. Talking Pictures have either located an excellent print or else had one struck from the negative and are doing their best to recoup the cost by screening it regularly. It stands up well and provides an interesting glimpse of England at the mid point of the twentieth century. If you're able to get past the improbable plot - couple living beyond their means, wife self-absorbed to the extent that even impending bankruptcy exacerbated by husband's compulsive gambling fails to stem her profligate spending, mother-fixated son with subconscious incestuous desires and supernatural gift for picking winners to win mother's love - then it's a half-decent effort well acted and directed despite Valerie Hobsons' overblown performance.
Review of The Rocking Horse Winner
