WARNING: This is most of the storyline. However, the chance of it spoiling the film for you is minimal as it seems to have vanished from the face of the earth! The Boy and the Bridge was a British film released in 1959. The story line concerns a schoolboy, Tommy Doyle (Ian McLaine) who runs away from home in the East End of London following a blazing row with his father (Liam Redmond) with whom he lives. The boy wants some money (can't remember what for) but father is hard up and has to refuse. The boy's parting words to his father are "I wish you were dead!". The film then follows the boy on his adventures around London. Lots of location stuff around Covent Garden (where he pinches an apple because he's hungry), the Fish Market, Tower of London (where he watches the changing of the guard) and on the banks of the Thames. As the day draws on, the cold and hungry the boy slinks home with his tail between his legs, but as he rounds the corner into the terraced street he sees two men carrying a coffin out of the house and into a hearse. His words echo back into his head "I wish you were dead" and he runs off in a blind panic thinking his curse has killed father. However, when the camera pans back to the house a different angle shows the 'coffin' to be a grandfather clock and the 'hearse' is simply a plain black van. His father is actually selling his prized clock to raise money to grant the boy's request. It is now dark and Tommy's father has informed the police about the boy's disappearance. The boy passes a news stand and sees the headline "Police search for missing boy" obviously he thinks he is now wanted for murder! Tired and scared he finds himself on the banks of the Thames and crawls under the tarpaulin cover of a barge where he sleeps the night away. The hustle and bustle of the Thames wakes him up next morning and more adventures follow with him trying to avoid the police. Finally, as darkness falls for the second night, he witnesses the "Ceremony of the Queen's Keys" at the Tower of London which seems to be when the day shift Beefeaters hand over to their night shift colleagues. Eventually, Tommy is wandering across Tower Bridge when he spots a policeman approaching from the other end. He ducks into a doorway and as he leans on the door it swings open and he darts inside to hide. He hears noises from below and descends the stone steps into the area where the bridge mechanism is contained. At one stage he almost gets crushed as the massive counterweight swings towards him as the bridge opens. There are three engineers down there (one played by Arthur Lowe) and while they're not looking, the boy nicks their sandwiches causing a row as the engineers blame each other for the theft. The boy then goes back up stairs and carries on up a few flights where he finds a disused room and beds down for the night. Next morning he his awakened by a tapping noise and realises that he is at the top of one of the towers and a seagull is pecking at the window. He opens the window and finally coaxes the seagull in with the remains of the sandwiches and they become friends (the seagull appears in the credits on screen as "Sammy The Seagull"). The boy tidies up the room and makes it a proper home from home. Comedy is provided by a Thames tugboat captain (James Hayter) who keeps seeing a face at the window at the top of the tower, and even washing out to dry at one point. However, every time he shouts his crew up from below to look there is nothing to see and they just think he's been at the whisky! Eventually the boy is discovered and as in all good films of this kind, he is re-united with dad, and they all live happily ever after. Regarding the music backing - I think it was mainly from a hand operated street barrel organ. Sorry if this seems a little sketchy, but I only saw it once about 50 years ago, so it must have had something to stay with me all these years! I personally don't remember it appearing on TV, but the British Film Institute appears to have a print of it and they say it may be released for TV or DVD if they can sort out who owns the rights to it.
Review of The Boy and the Bridge
