Sammy Going South (1965)

Load of rubbish!!

Disturbing yet enthralling

Charming and brutal

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

I showed this film ( U.S. version titled "A Boy Ten Feet Tall")at the base theater while stationed with the U.S. Navy in Asmara, Eritrea in 1973 and I thought it was one of Edward G. Robinson's finest. The basic premise of the movie, as I recall after all these years, is a boy is orphaned during an air raid in Egypt and then compelled to live with a foster parent. Having heard that he had an aunt living in South Africa he ran away from the foster parent and set out on his own to South Africa. The story tracks him through many adventures on his way and the best was when he came upon a diamond smuggler, Edward G. Robinson, who eventually befriends the boy and takes him under his wing. Of course this 'soft' gesture eventually leads to Edward G's demise and capture by authorities but he was able to instill a keen sense of responsibility and independence in the boy during their time together. The boy travels further across Africa and does eventually turn up at his Aunt's doorstep. I searched for this movie for years but no one seems to have heard of it. I think it would be a great candidate for a re-release or to come out on DVD.

the other day something somewhat amazing (at least for me) happened, i was checking out this usenet group that posts various obscure movies. and was reading the description of one of the posts and immediately knew it was a movie that i had seen many many years ago on when we had a b&w television so i would have been 9yrs old or younger. This movie had a almost overwhelmingly profound impact on me, it's the sort of thing that hardly a few days go by that i don't recall some scene, even 35 some years later, and it may sound a little corny, but i really think it had a formative effect on my life, basically it's an old British film about this 10yr old kid who's parents are killed during the 1956 conflict in the suez canal zone, and he is all alone in this chaotic country, decides to find some relative in Durban clear on the other end of the continent, so he treks out and gets into all these hair-raising situations but survives on his guile and wits, in particular i remember what saved him several times was his abandonment of any aristocratic bearing which endeared him to the myriad natives etc he became involved with, seeing it at that time deeply touched me somehow and the kid became a huge hero and role-model to me, probably more subconsciously than anything considering it has remained so vivid all these years. so it was a minor miracle in a way, to stumble upon it like that, i doubt you would ever see it on television, all these years i had never even known the name of it. I feel as if i have been re-united with a long lost friend, a friend who's name is "Sammy Going South"i never read any other review before writing my own… now after having read others, there is an almost eerie similarity, i find it extraordinary that this long lost film has had such a profound effect.

I saw this movie by myself as a young boy - and for years I thought I had dreamed the whole thing. As an adult (an psychologist) years later I realized how the movie impacted me and touched something deep in myself about how a boy who has lost everything - must make a long journey 'south' (symbolic of the unknown - unconscious - what better metaphor than traversing Africa) to find himself and the man who is living inside of him. I have looked for years for a copy - and wonder why to this day it has not been released on VHS or DVD - if anyone knows where it can be found I would LOVE to know. For those interested the book is wonderful as well - but doesn't have the 'feel' and 'power' the images in the movie left upon me.

A ten year-old English boy's parents are killed in Port Said during the 1956 Suez crisis, and so, in the British way, he sets off--alone and on foot--to travel the length of Africa to find his only relative, an aunt in Durban, South Africa. A children's picture filled with delights, especially the lovely location cinematography; the inspired casting of Edward G. Robinson as a wily soldier of fortune; and the engaging Fergus McClelland as the boy, Sammy, whose own innocence somehow mirrors an Africa which, even in 1956 (or 1963), was already quickly passing away.