Smiley Gets a Gun ** (1958, Sybil Thorndike, Chips Rafferty, Keith Calvert) – Classic Movie Review 10,264

Porducer-director Anthony Kimmins’s 1958 Australian comedy drama Smiley Gets a Gun is the sequel to his Smiley (1956), in which Smiley Greevins, now played by Keith Calvert, must keep out of trouble at school, help others and show he is responsible, if he is to earn the prize of a gun from Sergeant Flaxman.

Smiley Gets a Gun is pleasant enough but altogether less successful than its predecessor, and Colin Petersen (who had moved to England) is missed as Smiley, although this time round the supporting cast boasts the irrepressible talent of elderly Dame Sybil Thorndike as Granny McKinley, an evil old woman who lands Smiley in trouble yet again.

Chips Rafferty reprises his role as the police sergeant, and Bruce Archer is back as Joey, with Margaret Christiansen and Reg Lye also returning as Ma and Pa Greevins.

Also in the cast are Grant Taylor, Verena Kimmins, Leonard Teale, Jannice Dinnen, Brian Farley, Guy Doleman, Bruce Beeby, Ruth Cracknell, Gordon Chater, Val Cooney, Barbara Eather, John Fegan, Richard Pusey, Frank Ransome, William Rees, Charles Tasman and John Tate.

It is shot by Edward Scaife in CinemaScope and DeLuxe colour. It is written by Anthony Kimmins and Rex Rienits, based on the novel by Moore Raymond.

The poster pushes its luck, or its message, by mentioning Heart-Warming twice: ‘A Heart-Warming Story of a Heart-Warming Boy who runs a town wild with his HEART-THUMPING SCRAPES!’

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,264

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