Hue and Cry

Story

Joe, the fearless leader of a gang of street boys, discovers one day that some master crooks are using a comic strip to send messages about robberies in London. With the police disbelieving their story, will Joe and his gang be able to foil the crook’s master plan on their own?

Why we chose it

A classic Ealing comedy set in bomb damaged London immediately after the second world war and featuring a gang of street children who, in true child detective style, must foil a criminal gang without adult assistance.

Ealing comedies were a series of successful films which satirised the changes in life in Britain in the post war period.

Where it came from

This film is generally considered the first of the ‘Ealing Comedies’, filmed in and around Ealing Studios, London. It portrays working class children’s street culture and children’s secret clubs amongst the backdrop of a London still recovering from the Second World War.

T.E.B ‘Tibby’ Clarke was inspired by the classic German children’s novel, Emil and the Detectives, which was made into a film in Germany in 1931 and remade in Britain in 1935.

Where it went next

It opened in the Tivoli Cinema on the Strand, London and was well received. The film was digitally restored and re-released on Blu-ray and DVD in 2015.

Associated stories

T.E.B Clarke went on to write many more screen plays for Ealing Studios (often featuring gangsters), including Passport to Pimlico, The Blue Lamp and The Titfield Thunderbolt. In 1952 he won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Lavender Hill Mob.