Martin Bradley Highly controversial at the time of it's release and still disturbing today "Never Take Sweets from a Stranger" now feels like a polemic which somewhat dilutes its effectiveness as a thriller. It's extremely well-intended if a little on the dull side. The subject is child abuse; of course, being 1960 the abuse in question is never actually shown and is actually not even looked on as abuse by anyone other than the parents of the abused child.Felix Aylmer is admirably and bravely cast as the old man who gets a couple of little girls to dance naked for him while he gets off on it. Unfortunately Aylmer is a local bigwig while the family of one of the abused children are newcomers to this closed community who then gang up against them, taking the side of the abuser's family. (The family of the other little girl don't seem to want to know). Consequently the film is as much about the abuse of power as it is about sexual abuse.It was a product of Hammer Studios and sold as a 'horror' film but it's a very serious and sober picture, a message movie rather than an outright thriller. It is well written and Patrick Allen and Gwen Watford are fine as the parents while Niall MacGinnis as Aylmer's attorney and Alison Leggatt as the little girl's grandmother are outstanding. Today the film remains virtually unseen and while it may be no masterpiece at least you have to admire its intentions.

atlasmb "Never Take Candy from a Stranger"--as the film was titled when I watched it--is a product of Hammer Productions or, as it is sometimes known, Hammer Horror. As I watched the film, I regarded it as a drama, and that is how it is described on IMDb, but as the film progressed I realized it is a horror film, pure and simple.Like the film "Jaws"--which is listed under the horror genre--the monster is a largely unknown quantity. This allows the audience its fear of the unknown. We see the old man early on, but only briefly. The director does not allow the monster to talk. This is a plot hole, as the Jean, the daughter who visited his home, describes conversation they had. But it's a clever way to make the man less human.Other reviewers have described the old man (Clarence Olderberry, Sr.) as a "pedophile". I can see why they would use that term, but in the film he is somewhat like Frankenstein's monster--uttering inarticulate gibberish, with a stumbling gait. Frankenstein's monster was merely misunderstood, of course, and the old man may be no more than that. He certainly has a mental illness in the broadest sense of that word. The director does a good job of implying the worst and let the viewer succumb to his own fears. Another plot hole concerns the way Jean becomes so afraid of Clarence Olderberry, Sr. despite the fact that when she first tells her parents of meeting with him, she is quite matter of fact about it and displays no fear of the man. It's possible that Jean's opinion might have been altered by the behavior of her parents or her courtroom experience. The director needs her to be afraid so that the ending of the film has an impact.But the film is not really about the fears of the young girls. The fears of the parents are what the director taps into to create tension and fear in the audience. And he does a good job of it. The use of B&W stock gives the film a Gothic tone. He often shoots from the point of view of the girls when they are being chased. Seen strictly as a drama, this film is adequate, but as a horror film it is quite effective and the plot miscues can be seen as contrivances necessary to create tone. I suggest that it might have been even more effective if the elder Olderberry had not been shown at all in the early part of the film. Like the shark in "Jaws", the alien in "Alien", or even Boo Radley in "To Kill a Mockingbird", more tension can be elicited if the monster is left strictly to the imagination of the viewer.A film that is more successful in tapping parental fears is "The Bad Seed", where the horror is tempered with the parents' own fears that they contributed to the creation of the monster.

minamurray This will gather "unhelpful" votes from fans, but oh, well... Hammer was great with sumptuously lush Gothic monster stories, but messages were never their strong suite. Their clichéd Victorian patriarchs were always tormenting sanitized younger generation, and that was bad enough, but "serious" picture Never takes sweets from a stranger is worse. Film was described by producer Anthony Hinds as a movie about dangers of psychopaths roaming free, so who is this pedophiliac murderer in question? Oh yes, elderly mental patient, a real menace to society. Rolleyes. This makes film's "message" downright squalid, because in real life pedophiliacs are usually not dotty old men or outsiders of society, but doctors, priests etc. Just like in real life calculating pervert Hannibal Lecter would have been sent to death chamber instead of psychiatric facility. Thank atheism this film was commercial and critical flop and Hammer returned to what they did so splendidly - entertainment. Halleluja.

stephen-alexander-2 Vastly under-rated (no doubt due to it's lack of release and being regarded as just another Hammer Horror) it is yet another offering from that studio that shows just what crafted film-makers the team from Bray studios actually were.Director Cyril Frankel extracts first-rate performances from the leading performers, with Janina Faye worthy of special mention as the key victim in the saga.Production values are the usual high standard from the Hammer team of the late 50's - Early 60's, Bernard Robinson's production design triumphant transforming Pinewood's Black Park locations into a small Canadian town. Freddie Francis does his sterling filter work yet again, adding menace to the lakeside finale and offering more in monochrome than could have been achieved in colour.Considerably superior to most films that broach the subject matter and (although the copy I have seen is no better than average quality) it is hoped that the upcoming DVD release will restore the widescreen ratio thus allowing us to see it as it was intended.