Thursday’s Child **½ (1943, Sally Ann Howes, Wilfrid Lawson, Kathleen O’Regan, Stewart Granger) – Classic Movie Review 10,903

Director Rodney Ackland’s 1943 Thursday’s Child is a pleasant, well-made if slight little suburban family drama that has plenty of charm and appeal, though British distributors of the day neglected it.

Sally Ann Howes stars as Thursday’s child, schoolgirl Fennis Wilson, who is plucked from an everyday home and becomes big headed through film success as a child actor, causing her parents Frank and Ellen (Wilfrid Lawson, Kathleen O’Regan) much tension and distress.

Howes is extremely sweet and appealing in her début, aged 13, which launched her career, soon leading to her being put under contract by Michael Balcon of Ealing Studios, and Wilfrid Lawson is particularly good as her dad.

Rodney Ackland’s screenplay is adapted from Donald Macardle’s novel.

Sally Ann Howes turned 90 on 20 July 2020. She was born on 20 July 1930 in St John’s Wood, London. She is notable as The Admirable Crichton [Paradise Lagoon] (1957) as Lady Mary and is best known as Truly Scrumptious in the 1968 musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Also in the cast are Kathleen O’Regan, Eileen Bennett, Stewart Granger, Felix Aylmer, Marianne Davis, Gerhard Kempinski, Margaret Yarde, Percy Walsh, Ronald Shiner, Anthony Holles, Vera Bogetti, Michael Allen, Margaret Drummond, Patrick Aherne [Pat Aherne], Ethel Coleridge and Terry Randall.

Thursday’s Child is directed by Rodney Ackland, runs 81 minutes, is made by Associated British Picture Corporation, is released by Pathé Pictures (1943) (UK), is written by Rodney Ackland, based on Donald Macardle’s novel, is shot in black and white by Desmond Dickinson, is produced by John Argyle, is scored by Charles Williams and designed by J Charles Gilbert.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,903

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