Little Fugitive (1953)

I’m not a great fan of kids in films, but hats off to the young Richie Andrusco who really holds this together amiably well. “Joey” likes to play with his elder brother “Lennie” (Richard Brewster) and his pals but they think he’s a bit of a nuisance and like to play pranks on him. When they start messing around with a gun it looks like “Joey” might have actually done for his sibling and he panics. He can’t possibly go home, so he heads to the bright lights of the resort at Coney Island and that’s where he makes some friends whilst realising that he can make enough money to have plenty of goes on the ponies if he collects discarded bottles. Luckily for “Joey”, the man who runs those horses manages to find out enough about him to phone his worried brother, but he’s still going to have to get there and find him amongst the buzzing crowd before their mother realises that one of her babies has gone AWOL. Once we’ve met the lads and seen the joke play out, there’s precious little dialogue to clutter up this really quite enjoyable hour with a young lad who clearly has a thinking head on his shoulders as he enjoys most - though not all - of his sojourn to the seaside. This film also shows us a little of the excitement of the funfair and of just what entertained us seventy-odd years ago - and that still do that now, too. Many of us, of a certain age, will also remember when you got deposits back on glass bottles so it’s also quite curious just how many the young “Joey” could amass without really making any great effort. It’s also quite touching that though “Lennie” races to find his brother, he still finds time to go on some of the rides and to have an ice cream, too! It’s simplicity is enjoyable and it is well worth a watch.