Hunted (1952)

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Hunted is directed by Charles Crichton, has a screenplay by Jack Whittington and stars Dirk Bogarde, Jon Whiteley, Elizabeth Sellers and Geoffrey Keen.Chris Lloyd (Dirk Bogarde) discovers his wife (Elizabeth Sellers) is having an affair and he confronts the other man about it on a derelict building site and kills him. Unbeknown to him a small boy called Robbie (Jon Whiteley)is hiding there and witnesses the crime. Lloyd takes him and the pair go on the run. They are pursued by a Police Inspector (Geoffrey Keen). At first Lloyd is very quick tempered and is annoyed with Robbie but as they spend more time together the pair come to care for one another. Robbie comes from an abusive foster home and doesn't want to go back there.Bogarde is superb as the quick tempered and desperate man who despite his crime is not a monster. He goes through a real character change. As the film progresses he really begins to care for the boy and he's really gentle with him. The scene where Robbie asks him to tell him a story is very moving, especially when we realise Lloyd's telling the boy about what happened between him and his wife.Whiteley is excellent considering how young he is. He does a good job of conveying his fear of being touched (due to his abusive home life)and how he just wants some kindness in his life. You really feel sorry for him especially when Robbie and Lloyd become so attached because you know in reality this film can't have a happy ending.What this film does so well is make you feel the desperation, the fear and the difficulty of being on the run. Heavily populated places aren't safe because Lloyd could be recognised, every time he shows his face to try and get food or somewhere to stay for the night is a risk. As the film goes on Lloyd and Robbie become like two animals running from a pack of hunters. We want them both to escape and be happy with one another, yet we know that Lloyd's crime must be punished and that the film can only end in tears. Lloyd's decision on the boat for the sake of Robbie is enough to make anyone shed a tear.An excellent and poignant thriller that's a must see for Bogarde fans. Tiger Bay (1959)is another film very similar to this and is highly recommended if you enjoyed Hunted.

Hunted (AKA: The Stranger In Between) is directed by Charles Crichton and co-written by Jack Whittingham and Michael McCarthy. It stars Dirk Bogarde, Jon Whiteley, Elizabeth Sellars and Kay Walsh. Music is by Hubert Clifford and cinematography by Eric Cross.Story finds Bogarde and Whiteley as man and boy on the run for differing reasons. Bogarde's Chris Lloyd is a fugitive, Whiteley's Robbie a orphan being mistreated in his adoptive home. The odd couple, fleeing authority, but heading where?Haunting yet beautiful, firm but tender, Hunted is a terrific piece of Brit film noir that holds you in its grip from beginning to end. Film unfolds as being about two lost souls traversing the British lands, from a ravaged London in the beginning to a Scottish harbour at the end. Initially suspicious of each other, with the adult inconvenienced by his child companion, the relationship will develop as their respective demons surface. Who is the more frightened of the two? What hope is there for them? Fate has brought them together, but fate can often deal a deadly hand, what hand has been dealt Chris and Robbie? It's this question that hangs heavy in the tense story, ensuring our attention at all times.As the journey takes them out of the city, into the country and finally out to the sea shore, we are treated to no end of visual smarts. Imagery is a big part of Hunted's worth to the film noir enthusiast, be it monuments or various building structures, Crichton (Dead of Night) and Cross (The Mystery of the Marie Celeste) ensure that the simmering narrative is well served by locations and items that surround our two protagonists. Shadowed balustrade, spiral staircase, murky street lights, dingy basement, low lighted farm houses, barns, haystacks, railway sidings, medieval relic structure, and on it goes, all given a forbidding sheen by the makers, backed significantly, too, by Clifford's music swells and low rumble peters.Some means and motivations are purposely left grey, which means we get more dramatic/emotional impact for certain passages of dialogue, such as a bedtime story sequence that grips the heart considerably. The acting is first rate from Bogarde (Victim) and Whiteley (Moonfleet), very believable is their relationship (they would also make The Spanish Gardner together in 56), with Bogarde never better as he shifts seamlessly from a man of fiery rage and panic, to a tender soul reaching out in the shadows, desperately searching for redemption.Now available on DVD with a very good print, Hunted is yearning to be seen by more people. It deserves it, a real treat, both thematically and visually, one of the best new discoveries for me in 2012. 9/10

Very good, gritty British drama, with an excellent Dirk Bogarde as the murderer on the run who becomes a father figure to an abused child. Director Charles Crichton captures working class life and Britain, from the bleak city streets to the countryside, very well. Bogarde's scenes with the child actor Jon Whiteley are incredibly touching, and most importantly, feel inherently real. These two have such an incredible screen chemistry, that the viewer totally believes their relationship. Once again Bogarde proves himself one of the finest of all actors to grace the screen. This little British film, which obviously influenced the later, just as good "Tiger Bay" (with the child being replaced with a girl, one Hayley Mills), deserves to be better known.

....and "Gloria" (1980) and "Leon" as well...Charles Crichton,whose career spans the second half of the century ("a fish named Wanda"!),is definitely a director to upgrade."Hunted" is a small gem ,a suspenseful sensitive story which casts Bogarde as an unlucky murderer on the lam and young John Whiteley as a moving kid.A road movie,from the bleak city to the wild moors of Scotland ,where a special chemistry between the man and the boy literally grows on the audience .Spoilers.Spoilers. Like all the great storytellers ,Crichton introduces first Bogarde as the "villain " who abducts a cute brat.But further acquaintance shows this:actually both of them are victims of a society that increases the prestige of money ,of Bogarde's boss who sleeps with his wife ,a society that does not care a little bit about its orphans whom it leaves to hateful "parents" .The boy really acts as if he's got nothing to lose.Admirable sequence :In a bedroom they share for one night,Bogarde begins a bedtime story for his protégé:it's a fairy tale ,a story of a giant.But little by little ,the story becomes HIS own story :what a smart way of letting us know about the hero's past!During this sequence ,which takes place halfway through the film,we see the boy SMILE for the first time.His face is so beaming we are on the verge of tears .He will laugh later ,in his pal's mean brother's house ,during the meal.When Bogarde sails away with his "hostage" ,he makes the story he told come true . End of spoilers .end of spoilersBogarde's rendering is a real tour de force and many consider this parthis first important one:tense,distraught,anguished,he runs the whole gamut of emotions.Matching him every step of the way is Whiteley's performance :in the three examples I mention at the beginning of my comment ,which I admire (with the exception of Besson's) ,the young actors cannot hold a candle to him.Instant karma:he won a special AA the following year,and was given the main part in Lang's "Moonfleet" in 1954.He was to meet again Bogarde in "Spanish gardener".Crichton had often been labeled "for the whole family".But they totally missed the point:"hunted" is not a rosy work,its open ending does not settle the things ,but increases our fear of what will become of our two so endearing heroes.His directing is now nervous -the first sequences when the heroes do not stop running -,now intimate -all the scenes where the two characters hang on to each other,now poetic -the seagulls which accompany the triumphant voyage .A wonderful use of nature (not unlike Charles Laughton's "the night of the hunter") and its wildlife where the runaways take refuge.Wonderful movie.