Hide and Seek (1972)
A young boy runs away from an approved school to meet up with his father in the hope that he can persuade his dad to allow him to travel to Canada with him. He also meets up with two local children and discovers that his father is instead planning a bank heist.
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Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.
The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
It's hard to imagine a film being made today opening with the superscript 'DEPTFORD London', but in 1972 the Children's Film Foundation took the plunge and set this production in one of the Big Smoke's least tourist-familiar neighbourhoods. Hide and Seek stars future Spandau Ballet singer Gary Kemp as Keith, a streetwise youngster helping Chris Barker (Peter Newby), a runaway schoolboy who's been dubbed 'The Deptford Dodger' by local media in honour of his shoplifting feats. This being a CFF film there is, of course, a backstory that makes it clear that young Chris is the unfortunate victim of society. Also on hand are Robin Askwith as a phony PC and Roy Dotrice as a rather crusty old man in desperate need of a bath. All in all, a delightful time capsule of an early '70s London that has long since disappeared.