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Sterling stuff from the Rank / Two Cities stable, The Rocking Horse Winner, based on a dark parable by D.H. Lawrence, is brisk and exhilarating while retaining the shadows at the soul of the story.
10 year-old Paul Grahame (the late John Howard Davies) is anxious to make his mother (Valerie Hobson) happy. Her reckless spending has brought the outwardly well-to-do family to the brink of ruin. The ineffectual Mr Grahame doesnt help; he just loses money on the gee-gees. Its left to Mrs Grahames brother, a wealthy racing enthusiast, to keep bailing them out.
On receiving a sturdy rocking horse for Christmas, Paul finds the spirit of luckiness embracing him; names of dead-certs spring to his lips while at the height of frenzied riding sessions atop the wooden steed. Passing the tips on to the family gardener, Bassett (John Mills), who puts on the bets for him, Paul amasses a small fortune. But his method of picking winners takes a grip on his health and sanity.
For all its surface polish, this is unsettling stuff, and its writer-director Anthony Pelissier does not shy away from the storys complex undercurrents. He and cinematographer Desmond Dickinson evoke a haunting expressionism reminiscent not just of the German cinema of the 1920s but also the standout episodes of Ealings Dead of Night. Pelissiers career as a film director petered out after this and he went to work for the BBC, but on this evidence he could have given Michael Powell a run for his money.
John Mills, also the films producer, is typically generous as the reliable Bassett; he stands back manfully, a voice of humble decency, while Hobson, Squire and Davies go for the flashier performances. But the true star of the film is its flamboyant, chiaroscuro visual style, particularly in the scenes where a feverish Paul, hungry for his mothers approval, maniacally rocks his horse to a prophetic climax. Would-be psychologists have had a field day with it.
The DVD is released on October 3rd - buy it now for just £11.99 including P&P
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