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A Kid for Two Farthings
Joe is a young boy who lives with his mother, Joanna, in working-class London. The two reside above the tailor shop of Mr. Kandinsky, who likes to tell Joe stories. When Kandinsky informs Joe that a unicorn can grant wishes, the hopeful lad ends up buying a baby goat with one tiny horn, believing it to be a real unicorn. Undaunted by his rough surroundings, Joe sets about to prove that wishes can come true.
- Original title
- A Kid for Two Farthings
- Language
- EN
- Country
- US,GB
- Budget
- —
- Revenue
- —
CinemaSerf
Apr 16, 2025 · via TMDB
Jonathan Ashmore does quite a sterling job here tugging at the heart-strings with this upbeat, feel-good drama about the young “Joe” who just wants to be kind. He’s a young lad growing up in a sort of Portobello Road environment in a post war London that is still recovering. He lives with his mum (Celia Johnson) in small flat above a tailor’s shop run by “Kandinsky” (David Kossoff) who fills his head with imaginative stories and fantasies. It’s this that leads the lad to an idea. He uses every farthing to his name so he can buy a young kid that has yet to develop it’s horns properly. Why? Well, he thinks it will turn into an unicorn and be able to bestow gifts of good luck on those in his tightly knit community who care for him and whom he loves. What now ensues takes a rather good-humoured but still quite poignant look at human nature, nurture and spirit. His are not always rose-tinted experiences and at times his little goat finds itself in quite a pickle, but somehow we just know that good will prevail. It’s easy to be cynical about the naivety and simplicity of this story, but there’s a delightful chemistry on display between an on-form Kossoff and Ashmore partnered with the ever reliable Brenda de Banzie and aspiring the glamour-puss “Sonia” (Diana Dors) that all engagingly taps into the prevailing sentiment at the time that we won the war because we were supposed to and we must all muck in to rebuild - physically and societally. It’s the sheer innocence of the thing that cannot fail to bring a smile to your face, and there’s even a charming “Hercules” on hand in the guise of Primo Carnera’s aptly named “Python” to keep any trouble at bay. Don’t watch this with 2020s eyes, it won’t work - but if you can imagine yourself in a cinema in 1955, the new reign just started and a feeling of optimism abroad in the land, then I think you will enjoy this story of hope and friendship that Carol Reed keeps right ride of sentimentality.
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
Criterion Channel
Celia Johnson
Joanna
Diana Dors
Sonia
David Kossoff
Avrom Kandinsky
Joe Robinson
Sam Heppner
Jonathan Ashmore
Joe
Brenda De Banzie
Lady Ruby
Primo Carnera
Python Macklin
Lou Jacobi
Blackie Isaacs
Sidney James
Ice Berg
Irene Handl
Mrs. Abramowitz
Sydney Tafler
Madam Rita
Danny Green
Bully Bason
Vera Day
Mimi
Daphne Anderson
Dora
Joseph Tomelty
Vagrant
Harold Berens
Oliver
Barbara Archer
Madam Rita's Workroom Girl (uncredited)
Harry Baird
Jamaica (uncredited)
Alfie Bass
Alf the Bird Man (uncredited)
Bruce Beeby
Policeman (uncredited)
Eddie Byrne
Sylvester the Photographer (uncredited)
Peter Gilmore
Walk on part (uncredited)
Harold Goodwin
Chick Man (uncredited)
Nora Gordon
Customer (uncredited)
Harold Kasket
(uncredited)
Sam Kydd
(uncredited)
Harry Locke
Stallholder (uncredited)
Edward Malin
Dog Man (uncredited)
Spike Milligan
Indian with Grey Beard (uncredited)
Norman Mitchell
Stallholder (uncredited)
Jim Brady
Wrestling Match Spectator (uncredited)
Dido Plumb
Wrestling Match Audience (uncredited)
Barbara Windsor
Blonde with a Crush on Sam (uncredited)
Carol Reed
Director
Alexander Korda
Executive Producer
Carol Reed
Producer
Wolf Mankowitz
Novel
Wolf Mankowitz
Screenplay
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Shorts
Apr 17, 1956
New York City
