Daylight Robbery *** (1964, Darryl Read, Kirk Martin, Janet Hannington, Trudy Moors) – Classic Movie Review 9335

Director Michael Truman’s 1964 enthusiastic Children’s Film Foundation short feature Daylight Robbery is all about kids and robbers again. This time they get locked in a store, eventually stopping the raiders tunnelling through the store’s basement wall into the jewellers next door.

Daylight Robbery showcases eager performances from the youngsters, Trudy Moors, Janet Hannington, Kirk Martin, and Darryl Read. And as usual there is a particularly fine crop of nice adults, including Ronald Fraser, Gordon Jackson, Janet Munro, Patricia Burke, Zena Walker, James Villiers and Norman Rossington, who were all bright lights of the day, as well as Douglas Robinson and John Trenaman as gangsters.

Darryl Read, Kirk Martin and Janet Hannington play children Darryl, Kirk and Janet, who want to dump their friend Trudy (Trudy Moors), so they steal a battery from a store intending to replace it and then realise they have been locked in.

Darryl Read won the Silver Medal for the best acting performance at the Venice Film Festival (1965), aged 14. At 16 he was a teenage pin-up star and has since appeared in countless TV and film productions including Minder and EastEnders. He died in a road accident on 22 June 2013 in North Pattaya, Thailand, aged 61.

Daylight Robbery is directed by Michael Truman, runs 59 minutes, is made by Viewfinder Films, is released by Children’s Film Foundation (1964) (UK), is written by Dermot Quinn, based on an original idea by Frank Wells, is shot in black and white by Geoffrey Faithfull and is produced by John Davis and scored by Tristram Cary.

It is made at Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9335

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com