Child’s Play

No, there are no killer Chucky dolls in filmmaker Margaret Thomson’s good-natured, slightly daft 1954 comedy. Instead, we have a pack of young British kids (identified in the credits as "The Holy Terrors") who discover how to split atoms and raise a mushroom cloud using only a few boxes, pipes, twirling gizmos, and (naturally) a rock from the volcanic island of Krakatoa. What do these not-so-terrorizing scamps do with their sudden nuclear ambitions in a small rural village? They channel radioactive energy into making a particularly tasty popcorn they call "bang corn," and then partner with the charming proprietor (Mona Washbourne) of a local sweets shop to sell the delicious snack. The story’s villain is an overzealous constable who is determined to give everyone a bad time and catch the children at their explosive new hobby. Child’s Play could easily be dismissed as an oddball family comedy satirizing (of all things) the Atomic Age less than a decade after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But there is also an instructive element of surreal humor that resonates with such mid-century British comedy juggernauts as The Goon Show, A Hard Day’s Night, and Monty Python. Recommended. (T. Keogh)