A Kid for Two Farthings (1956)

Wonderful character development!

Absolutely brilliant

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Wow, I can't believe reviews saying the boy was a bad actor. He is perfectly natural and adorable. Also, the color was magnificent, gritty, yet vibrant. Black and white would not have added anything to the colorful market days and red neon nights. This is a real gem and I highly recommend seeing it. I'm confused why it's considered a fantasy though, since nothing happens that couldn't happen in real life. This film really gives you a sense of place and time, and you feel you know these people and that they are real and a tight knit loving community so different from modern times. There is so much wit, wordplay and attention to detail. It's the little things that make it so nice, like the man watching ballet on the TV while the wrestling match is going on. This film is compelling and utterly charming. I highly recommend it.

Movies titles always intrigue me, and are often the first thing that causes me to look. Long ago, when the film was released, I recall hearing about this one from my parents and, even then, I was puzzled by the title. Hence, when I had the chance to see this recently, for the first time, I was looking forward to solving my fifty-five year puzzle.The term 'farthing' has two meanings: first, it was, at one time, an English coin of low value, equal to one-quarter of a penny; two farthings equaled a half-penny, still not much in money terms. And second, 'farthing' was generally used colloquially as anything of little value. In the story, young Joe (Jonathan Ashmore) is on a quest to find and buy a unicorn because Mr Kadinsky (David Kossof), his friend and his mother's landlord, had told Joe that unicorns were magical creatures that could grant every wish. And young Joe very much wants to have some wishes to come about – starting with seeing his father again, who is a prospector far away in South Africa. However, more pressing needs arise in Petticoat Lane of East London, the setting for this slice of London life in the fifties: Joe's adults friends, Sonia (Diana Dors) and Sam (Joe Robinson) are engaged and they need an engagement ring and other home trifles that they cannot afford to buy; Mr Kadinsky needs an automatic steam press for his shop, but can't afford the price; and Sam is a body builder but he's been encouraged – pressured by Sonia, you might say – to enter a wrestling match against The Python (Primo Carnera) and win some money so that he and Sonia can get married. Young Joe, naturally, wants the unicorn to make it all come true.So, Joe begins wandering around the stalls of the market, searching, in and out, up and down, until he happens upon an old salt who has a young goat – a kid - with only one horn. With the goat in tow, the old geezer is wandering around the market, trying to sell it. Joe, thinking he's found a real unicorn, sidles up and begins to bargain...How much? he asks. The man looks at him and says, gruffly, Five bob! I'll give you three and nine, Joe responds, hopefully. The old fellow thrusts him away. Get off, I might as well skin and eat it. He looks around some more, calling out for buyers – to no avail. Joe pulls all of his money out. Look, he says, I'll give you three and nine-pence ha'penny. He held out the money, together with a few worthless foreign coins. Exasperated, no other buyers on hand, the old man says, Oh, well, give me your money. He takes it roughly and stalks off, leaving Joe with the goat.So, Joe prances off with his 'unicorn', having acquired it for only an additional half-penny - two farthings - and the old man got rid of something that was of no value to him. Puzzled solved for me, at last.What's more surprising, however, is the fact that Carol Reed produced and directed it – the director famous for The Third Man (1949), Trapeze (1956), Our Man in Havana (1959) and other dramatic goodies from the thirties and forties. Quite a departure, artistically, for Reed, yet this film works as a delightful fantasy, for young Joe, who believes that his prize possession is the reason why so many good things happen thereafter. The irony is that, in a real sense, that's true – but only because his lucky pet gets caught up between Sonia, Sam and The Python. The most I'll say about the rest of the story is that most of the wishes come true, but at a cost. The real joy in this film is seeing how it all pans out for young Joe and all the other residents of a part of London long gone but happily still living in films such as this. Having lived there myself for five years in the mid-sixties, vivid memories of that area flooded back. In that regard, I would have preferred black-and-white photography instead of the over-saturated colors of this print. But, London always looked so drab and dull in those days, so I guess that's why Reed went for color, and strong ones, all to enhance the magical quality of the setting and story. The casting was generally very good, with the standout being David Kossof as Kadinsky; what a fine actor he was (passed away only in 2005). Young Jonathan Ashmore as Joe was well directed by Reed, showing a flair for acting (although he never appeared in another film), despite sounding very unlike any East Ender I ever heard. Ditto for his mother, Joanna (Celia Johnson), better known for appearing in weepy romances from the forties, Brief Encounter (1945) being one. Diana Dors decorated her scenes well; Joe Robinson as the body-builder performed in a wonderfully campy and narcissistic manner, a deliberate parody of the profession, I'm sure. Primo Carnera provided a great contrast to Joe in the many times they game to grips with each other. The wrestling scenes between the two are worth seeing the film just for those: bone crunching throws and tosses as only true professional fighters can do. Despite those scenes, it's still a kid's story – no pun intended! The rest of the cast – including Brenda de Banzie, Sid James and even Spike Milligan in a bit part – all contributed in their usual fashion: flawlessly.If you and your family are looking for a new cultural experience and an enchanting – and quite funny, at times – story as well, then I'd urge you to see it.

A minor item in the Carol Reed oeuvre,"A kid for two farthings" falls somewhere between "It always rains on Sundays" and "Expresso Bongo" - also written by Wolf Mankowitz - in following the path beaten by Gerald Kersh as the principal chronicler of post - war street life in London. Set in Middlesex St - popularly known as Petticoat Lane - it tells the story of a small boy entranced by tales of the magic properties of unicorns who mistakes a young goat with a single horn for such a creature and attributes it with miraculous powers.Having an absent father the boy relies heavily on the guidance of wise Jewish tailor Mr D.Kossof who is also his mother's landlord.The mother (Miss C.Johnson distinctly uncomfortable and,frankly,a bit too old)is apparently receiving letters from her husband who is trying to make his fortune in the rapidly - dwindling colonies,but the inference is that he has just walked out on her and the boy. Working in the tailor's shop is Sam - a narcissistic bodybuilder who has been engaged to Miss D.Dors for four years.It is clear that ,as was the way at the time,that they are not having a sexual relationship and both Miss Dors and Mr J.Robinson as Sam are rather touching as the not - quite lovers,a more serious equivalent of Ron and Eth in "The Glums", from "Take it from here",a radio show popular at the time. Like "Night and the city",Jules Dassin's earlier take of the Kersh novel of the same name "A kid for two farthings" centres round professional wrestling.Mr P.Carnera,formerly World Heavyweight Boxing Champion,and allegedly the model for Mountain Rivera in "Requiem for a Heavyweight" plays "The Python",an ageing but rather frightening wrestler whose jibes provoke Sam into abandoning his principles as a "pure" bodybuilder to enter the wrestling ring for that Godsend for the Promoter the "Grudge Match". Buoyed up by the burning faith of the boy in his unicorn Sam eventually defeats the Python,Miss Dors gets her ring and Mr Kossof a new steam press from the winnings and Sam a partnership in the tailor's business. Presumably exhausted by its efforts the unicorn dies and is buried by Mr Kossof,singing a Jerwish lament over its body.Against all the odds this turns out to be moving rather than corny. There are small parts for Mr S.James,Miss I.Handl,Mr H.Behrens and Mr D.Green.Mr S.Tafler and Miss B.de Banzie feature rather more strongly. Miss Dors wisely does not attempt a cockney accent in such august company. "A kid for two farthings" is certainly a rose - coloured picture of East End life in the 1950s,but then it is a fable rather than a straightforward account.I doubt if anybody took it as a serious bit of film making when it was first released and certainly fifty years on it hardly seems cutting - edge but British film lovers of a certain age may well regard it as a treasure house . It is the world of Harrison Marks,pencil skirts and jiving in the street.When Joe and The Python brawl ,just the sight of a Bobby stops them in their tracks,day-old chicks and cute puppies are sold on market stalls.This may be a lost London,but "A kid for two farthings" ensures that it is not a forgotten one.

Seeing this film for the first time today, the first thing you notice is just how vibrant the colours are and just how unsuited to colour the film is. Black-and-white might have given the film an edge; colour only makes it look like a sub-Runyon yarn. It's set in London's East End and is certainly full of Runyonesque characters, this time courtesy of Wolf Mankowitz. The next thing you notice is just how terrible it is and how terribly miscast it is.Who, apart perhaps from Carol Reed, could have envisaged marble-mouthed Celia Johnson as a working-class East End mother? Is it any wonder her toffee-nosed brat of a boy, (Jonathan Ashmore, never heard of again), talks as if he's been taking elocution lessons. Then there's Joe Robinson, the most Runyonesque character of all, another improbably polite strongman engaged to Diana Dors, (not bad, considering). And no East End movie of the period would be complete without David Kossoff as a Yiddish tailor, (did he come out of the womb talking and looking like that?).It's about Ashborne buying a young goat with a single horn which he believes is a unicorn. It's meant to be heart-warming. We are supposed to love the child and his goat. I wanted to skin them alive. The film is hardly ever revived. Even Carol Reed retrospectives tend to ignore it. Now I know why.