Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

JinRoz For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

clanciai I saw this in Britain (Blackpool of all places) in black-and-white on a disturbed television in 1963, but I could never forget the film. 50 years later I can see it again on the computer, but !N COLOUR! which was sensational, and the magic of the very simple and ordinary story appeared in full splendor. This is a fascinating and successful effort to catch the magic of life at the bottom, it's a poor family that can't afford anything, not even a cracked wedding ring, and still a small boy's sense of magic, helped on by an old Jewish tailor of singular psychological insight, brings this family to a kind of realization of all their dreams - except one. It's simply a presentation of how magic can work on even the most basic levels. To this comes the overwhelming charm of the street life of East End with a picturesque gallery of originals without end, so you could easily see this film many times and each time find new treasures; and the great acting of all the protagonists, Diana Dors, 'Britain's only blonde bomb-shell' stealing every scene she appears in, and Celia Johnson good as always, while the two characters you will remember with the greatest pleasure undoubtedly will be David Kossoff as Mr Kandinsky the old tailor, and the boy Joe, played by Jonathan Ashmore - I've never seen him again. Primo Camera as the monstrous Python and Danny Green as Bully Bason add another kind of charm and spice to the stew and enrich the colorful gallery with burlesque and sometimes awesome brutality. Finally poetry is added to it by the endearing music of Benjamin Frankel, veiling it all in lovability. This was Carol Reed's first color film and will remain a priceless gem of poetry-in-the-gutter for all times.

Spikeopath Young Joe is constantly enthralled by tales of a Unicorn, told to him by Kadinsky the tailor, he is mesmerised by the notion that a Unicorn can make wishes come true. Whilst roaming the market he happens upon a seller who has a one horned Goat for sale, believing it to be a Unicorn, Joe barters for the Goat and begins to see little miracles happening to the folk around the area.This is a positively delightful film, based on the novel by Wolf Mankowitz, this is the first colour film from acclaimed director Carol Reed. A Kid For Two Farthings plays out the innocence of youth amongst a backdrop of working class trades folk in London's Petticoat Lane, young Joe, believing the Unicorn has mystical powers, starts asking for little miracles to happen to those around him, low and behold fortunes start to take an upturn. That the miracles are easily explained is of no importance in the picture, it's the belief system that this one horned Goat, via Joe's prompting, instills in everyone, a hark back to the time in us all when we believed in magic and miracles.The cast list boasts Celia Johnson {sadly underused}, Diana Dors, David Kossoff, Brenda de Banzie, Primo Carnera {perfectly cast as a hulking bully of a wrestler} and Sid James. Reed should take a lot of credit for getting such a joyous performance from Jonathan Ashmore as Joe, it's a lovely turn that has sweet innocence seeping from every frame. The film culminates in a well staged wrestling match that ups the tempo considerably, and then the film closes with a truly wonderful final shot that left this particular viewer feeling all the more richer for having just watched this picture. 8/10

ianlouisiana A minor item in the Carol Reed oeuvre,"A kid for two farthings" falls somewhere between "It always rains on Sundays" and "Expresso Bongo" - also written by Wolf Mankowitz - in following the path beaten by Gerald Kersh as the principal chronicler of post - war street life in London. Set in Middlesex St - popularly known as Petticoat Lane - it tells the story of a small boy entranced by tales of the magic properties of unicorns who mistakes a young goat with a single horn for such a creature and attributes it with miraculous powers.Having an absent father the boy relies heavily on the guidance of wise Jewish tailor Mr D.Kossof who is also his mother's landlord.The mother (Miss C.Johnson distinctly uncomfortable and,frankly,a bit too old)is apparently receiving letters from her husband who is trying to make his fortune in the rapidly - dwindling colonies,but the inference is that he has just walked out on her and the boy. Working in the tailor's shop is Sam - a narcissistic bodybuilder who has been engaged to Miss D.Dors for four years.It is clear that ,as was the way at the time,that they are not having a sexual relationship and both Miss Dors and Mr J.Robinson as Sam are rather touching as the not - quite lovers,a more serious equivalent of Ron and Eth in "The Glums", from "Take it from here",a radio show popular at the time. Like "Night and the city",Jules Dassin's earlier take of the Kersh novel of the same name "A kid for two farthings" centres round professional wrestling.Mr P.Carnera,formerly World Heavyweight Boxing Champion,and allegedly the model for Mountain Rivera in "Requiem for a Heavyweight" plays "The Python",an ageing but rather frightening wrestler whose jibes provoke Sam into abandoning his principles as a "pure" bodybuilder to enter the wrestling ring for that Godsend for the Promoter the "Grudge Match". Buoyed up by the burning faith of the boy in his unicorn Sam eventually defeats the Python,Miss Dors gets her ring and Mr Kossof a new steam press from the winnings and Sam a partnership in the tailor's business. Presumably exhausted by its efforts the unicorn dies and is buried by Mr Kossof,singing a Jerwish lament over its body.Against all the odds this turns out to be moving rather than corny. There are small parts for Mr S.James,Miss I.Handl,Mr H.Behrens and Mr D.Green.Mr S.Tafler and Miss B.de Banzie feature rather more strongly. Miss Dors wisely does not attempt a cockney accent in such august company. "A kid for two farthings" is certainly a rose - coloured picture of East End life in the 1950s,but then it is a fable rather than a straightforward account.I doubt if anybody took it as a serious bit of film making when it was first released and certainly fifty years on it hardly seems cutting - edge but British film lovers of a certain age may well regard it as a treasure house . It is the world of Harrison Marks,pencil skirts and jiving in the street.When Joe and The Python brawl ,just the sight of a Bobby stops them in their tracks,day-old chicks and cute puppies are sold on market stalls.This may be a lost London,but "A kid for two farthings" ensures that it is not a forgotten one.

Martin Bradley Seeing this film for the first time today, the first thing you notice is just how vibrant the colours are and just how unsuited to colour the film is. Black-and-white might have given the film an edge; colour only makes it look like a sub-Runyon yarn. It's set in London's East End and is certainly full of Runyonesque characters, this time courtesy of Wolf Mankowitz. The next thing you notice is just how terrible it is and how terribly miscast it is.Who, apart perhaps from Carol Reed, could have envisaged marble-mouthed Celia Johnson as a working-class East End mother? Is it any wonder her toffee-nosed brat of a boy, (Jonathan Ashmore, never heard of again), talks as if he's been taking elocution lessons. Then there's Joe Robinson, the most Runyonesque character of all, another improbably polite strongman engaged to Diana Dors, (not bad, considering). And no East End movie of the period would be complete without David Kossoff as a Yiddish tailor, (did he come out of the womb talking and looking like that?).It's about Ashborne buying a young goat with a single horn which he believes is a unicorn. It's meant to be heart-warming. We are supposed to love the child and his goat. I wanted to skin them alive. The film is hardly ever revived. Even Carol Reed retrospectives tend to ignore it. Now I know why.