Wonder Boy (1951) User Reviews

A truly charming film

[malcolmgsw · 7/10 · 3 September 2022]

This film features Bobby Henerey in his second and last film. He plays a child pianist who is a prodigy. His affairs are controlled by his avaricious manager,played by Elwyn Brooke Jones, who has taken all his earnings for himself,to the consternation of his governess,Muriel Aked. So the governess decides to have him abducted by a local gang. He is taken to a house in the mountains .He suddenly finds pleasure in the open air,playing baseball with gang member Robert Shackelton and befriend an Alsatian guard dog. However this blissful existance cannot last forever and one of the gang informs the police. However when he gets back to his manager the tables have turned and he manages to extract from him a far better deal.

The photography is superb and it really is an enchanting film.

Alas it seems to never have found favour. Produced during Alexander Kordas tenure at British Lion it sat on the shelf for over a year. Though released on DVD some years ago this is only the second review and it has not been shown on TPTV.

Bobby Henrey's second and last film is a little gem!

[DavidW1947 · 10/10 · 20 May 2013]

While not in the same league as that in "The Fallen Idol", Bobby Henrey's performance in his second and last film, "The Wonder Kid", is just as charming and fascinating to watch. He is totally convincing and often very touching as Sebastian Giro, a ten years old French boy and child musical prodigy found in an orphanage by Mr Gorik (Elwyn Brook-Jones) who exploits the youngster's talent as a classical pianist and turns him into an international celebrity. He even tells everyone that the boy is only seven years old in order to make the boy wonder's talent seem all the more remarkable. But Gorik is also a crook who embezzles the takings so that he has almost all the money and Sebastian gets hardly any. Coupled with that, Gorik won't allow Sebastian to enjoy the simple pleasures of being a little boy, like having a pet dog or playing with other boys or even reading comic books, because, when Sebastian isn't performing, Gorik isn't making any money out of him. He works the over tired boy like a slave who must continually practise on the piano. Sebastian's elderly English governess, Miss Frisbie (Muriel Aked) is very concerned about the boy and confronts Gorik about his crooked activities. But he dismisses her from her post. Miss Frisbie then pays a gang of junior league crooks to "kidnap" Sebastian and take him to stay in a remote lodge in the Austrian Tyrol and Gorik won't get him back until he's paid over a huge ransom which is, in effect, all the money he has stolen from the boy. It is here, in this beautiful setting, that the boy finds a freedom and a happiness he has never known and just wants to stay there forever with those who have become his friends. But trouble is on the horizon for him...

This now unjustly forgotten little film is thoroughly entertaining and wonderful to watch and definitely deserves to be restored properly and released on DVD. Apart from the truly picturesque scenery, Bobby Henrey's performance as the cruelly exploited child prodigy who moves from misery to happiness is just wonderful. Highly recommended.