Angela Baddeley (Mrs Ramsay), Maurice Kaufmann (Steve), Dorothy Bromiley (Sarah), Gerard Lohan (Pip), Bruce Seton (zoo superintendent), Ronald Leigh-Hunt (Superintendent Copson), Doreen Keogh (Mary), Erik Chitty (vulture man), Peter Allenby (politico), June Clarke (air hostess), Garard Green (customs official), Michael Peake (keeper), Alan Penn (Bruce), Peter Sinclair (Benham), Robert Raglan (plumber).
Director: David EADY. Original story and screenplay: Jan Read. Photography: Ernest Palmer. Film editor: John Pomeroy. Music composed and conducted by Edwin Astley. Art director: Duncan Sutherland. Make-up: Terry Terrington. Hairdresser: Joyce James. Camera operator: Frank Drake. Assistant director: Jack Drury. Production manager: Jacques de Lane Lea. Sound recording: Ken Cameron, Bill Bulkley. Producer: Jon Penington. A Penington Eady Production presented by the Rank Organisation.
Copyright 1957 by Penington-Eady Productions. U.K. release through Rank Film Distributors: December 1957. No theatrical release in Australia or the U.S.A. 59 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A newsreel cameraman is suspected when a Coati Mundi bear is stolen from Chessington Zoo. However the actual culprit is...
COMMENT: Produced by Jon Penington and directed by David Eady for their own production company, this modest kiddies' matinée support, has higher production values than is usual for this type of film. It is well acted (except for Chitty's over-acting) and maintains the interest.
Dorothy Bromiley is a somewhat plump heroine, but I doubt if the kiddies will mind. The actual locations used are attractive.
OTHER VIEWS: We cannot say goodbye to the "B" movie without a salute to that now forgotten species, the children's film. In Britain, the Children's Film Foundation maintained a steady output of feature films right through the 50s, often using fairly well-known, if second- string adult faces.
In the United States, thanks to the efforts of the Walt Disney Organisation and independent producers like Robert Radnitz, family films were extremely popular right through to the 70s, and still have a few breaths of life even today.
"Zoo Baby" is very much a typical example of its genre. The rebellious, surly and self-centered Pip pursues his own ends with complete disregard for the adults, who seem to be regarded as the enemy. A likable portrayal might have made us warm to this walking disaster, but Gerard Lohan acts the part with a suitably truculent air but very little charm.
Admittedly Angela Baddeley, indulged by the director with lots of unflattering close-ups, also over-acts stridently, but the rest of the players are tolerable enough, despite Eady's relentlessly dull direction.
Nicely photographed, but other credits are no more than routine. And I would describe production values, plenty of actual location lensing notwithstanding, as distinctly modest.
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