The Yellow Balloon

The film centres around the exploits of a little boy who has the misfortune to fall foul of a slimy crook after witnessing a fatal accident.

The boy in question is 12-year old Frankie Palmer (Andrew Ray) has lost his sixpence his father Ted (Kenneth More) has given him to buy the yellow balloon of the title. Noticing that his friend Ronnie has a balloon Frankie snatches it from him and runs off with it. Ronnie chases after him and the two boys find themselves at the ruins of a bombed-out building. Climbing the open stairs, an accident occurs and Ronnie topples to his death. Unfortunately this dreadful occurrence is witnessed by the shady Len Turner (William Sylvester), a crook on the run who uses the ruins as a hideout. Turner, badly in need of money to fund his escape, decides to blackmail the boy into stealing money from his parents. The terrified boy feels that he has no alternative but to comply with the crook’s demand, knowing full well what the upshot of this act will be – a damn good trashing! Our poor little chap is in an impossible situation and no one can help him out of it.

Len of course needs considerably more money than Frankie is able to supply him with and decides to use him as a decoy when he attempts to rob a pub where his girlfriend works as a barmaid. The pub landlord, in attempting to thwart Len’s hold-up, is killed in the process. The incident is witnessed by Frankie and Len realises that he has no other option then to kill the boy! This leads to a thrilling climax in a disused and bombed-out underground station in which a cat and mouse game is played out to its bitter end.

Young Andrew Ray, who made such a successful debut in the much better known The Mudlark is equally impressive here as the tormented Frankie. Kenneth More as his Dad is not only completely wasted but somewhat miscast, whilst William Sylvester is as flat as ever and his lacklustre and one-dimensional performance does nothing to enhance the film’s qualities.

J. Lee Thompson’s direction is tight and on the spot, this was after all the man who gave us the original Cape Fear. Gilbert Taylor’s cinematography comes into his own and is particularly effective in the climactic Underground sequence chase.
Incidentally, The Yellow Balloon was one of the first films to be passed with the then new Adults Only “X” certificate by the British Board of Film Censors, which barred anyone under the age of 16 years from being allowed into a cinema to see the film.