RAISING A RIOT

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 889, 17 August 1956, Page 26

RAISING A RIOT

(London Films-W essex) [N a week of films that all had their moments, but were all in some way disappointing, Raising a Riot was hardly what its title suggests, but all the same a piece that should be pretty generally enjoyed for its freshness and quiet good humour, It’s yery much an English com-edy-a story of the efforts of a young naval officer on leave, Tony Kent, to take care of his young family in his father’s old mill house in the country while his wife is away. * As played by Kenneth More, Tony is a likeable, patient character, and among three good child players you'll notice Mandy Miller, of Mandy. The plentiful ineident is all of a kind which any parent knows, though I must shamefully confess that my on-the-spot attitude is generally a much less good natured one than Tony’s. Meals get spoiled, children get into paint, household repairs get mixed up with the cooking, a fishing trip ends in a ducking, and so on. But the story is never forced except towards the end, when I had the feeling that the scriptwriters were spinning thinly and from force of habit-which is this particular film’s disappointment. The most interesting new face in Raising a Riot is Jan Miller’s. Miss Miller comes up with a refreshing performance as Sue, a young-well, teenager, I suppose, who develops a teenager’s love for Tony, and declares it in a touching little scene. One can’t take it too seriously, but anyone who has encountered or experienced that sort of thing must have bled a little for Sue as in the end Tony drove off. back to town. Raising a Riot is not the best work of its director, Wendy Toye, who made the striking first story in Three Cases of Murder, and (I think) The Stranger Left No Card, though its unpretentious charm is not to be sneezed at. Played out in a most attractive setting it is also beautifully photographed in very good Technicolor by Christopher Challis