I have to say that I found Phillipe to be one of the most irritating child characters in a film. This seems mostly to be due to the writing of the character, though I'm not fully certain of that. I've rarely ever disliked a child on screen, so I was somewhat shocked at my own reaction here. The moment when Phillipe is thrust violently into a stiff-backed chair by one of the inspectors was especially gratifying in this context.
shareHuh, I thought he was utterly adorable. Somehow he reminded me of my own son in spirit, though not in looks.
shareI also quite liked him, not necessarily as a person but as an actor & well developed character. If he seemed annoying, that could have been because he was supposed to be annoying, a child who continually gets in the way of adult dealings.
This movie can easily be read as a "what not to do" of child-care; shunting them away, telling them lies and assuming they are ignorant because they're children is a mistake, they understand more than we think and the things we thoughtlessly drop on them is taken very seriously, they don't forget the details as we sometimes hope they will.
I have to say that I found Phillipe to be one of the most irritating child characters in a film.
The moment when Phillipe is thrust violently into a stiff-backed chair by one of the inspectors was especially gratifying in this context.
Exactly. Good movie that fails to achieve greatness by way of the irritating child. And I don't think it was the script, I think it was the child's acting that made it so.
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Perhaps you didn't like Bobby's performance because you are so used to the loud-mouthed, sarcastic, bratty child foisted upon the movie audiences so often today. So a gentle, imaginative, ruminative child trying hard to understand the adult world around him, doesn't resonate with you.
Whoa, let's tone down the snobbery.
I think the reason people don't like Phile is because, as posted above, he is a nuisance.
Baines wants out of the embassy...an escape from his wife and from the boy to whom he has unwittingly become a "father." I sympathize with Baines and want him to find happiness.
That's why the movie creates an interesting conflict for me.
Phile is basically a good boy, innocent and well-intentioned, and I should like him. However, he is such an obstacle to Baines' happiness that by the end of the movie, I hated him and secretly hoped he would meet the same fate as Mrs. Baines.
Well, if Phile weren't such an obstacle to Baines' happiness, there wouldn't have been much of a film to look at.
I believe those in your camp really are getting the performer and the performance confused.
I understand Bobby Henrey was a very difficult child to work with (he had a very short attention span) and I'm amazed at the job Carol Reed did at making him so appealing to the audience. I love him!
shareIt's true. Getting the performer and the performance confused, that is. According to the information on the movie, the woman who played the Mrs. Baines character was the one closest to the little boy actor on the set in real life. The boy who cried wolf was not meant to be sympathetic and in that way the movie succeeded.
shareWe watched the DVD tonight (BTW it is available on DVD from Netflix) and the extra feature on Carol Reed said that Bobby was a terrible actor with absolutely NO attention span at all and that Carol would use thousands of feet of film just to get one usable shot. I thought this was fascinating information, because-- like him or not-- the kid did a great job. Turns out Carol had to nurse or drag virtually every word out of him. According to IMDB the kid did only one other movie in 1951 and thus endeth his career.
If you get the DVD be sure and watch the feature on Carol Reed-- he was the illegitimate son of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, the great British actor, and Tree maintained two parallel separate families. That's probably why in this film, contrary to the usual movie morals of the time, the unfaithful husband and his girlfriend didn't have to be punished by death at the end of the movie. (I was so afraid we would hear a gunshot as Julie went down to the basement to get Bains!)
To those who didn't like Phile:
You're the sort who would kill MacGregor. Phile is easily the most adorable and funny child I've ever seen onscreen. Sure he put Baines at risk, but their in lies all of the tension of the second half of the film, and besides, everything he did was a frantic if misguided bid to save his idol from the death sentence.
Top 4: The Royal Tenenbaums, In The Mood For Love, Lawrence of Arabia, The Third Man
Last Seen: The Fallen idol 9/10
Yeah, I'd definitely kill MacGregor.
sharePhile on the other hand...
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My cat's breath smells like cat food
I too found him most annoying, but isn't that the point? He was a brat, undermining Mrs. Baines, the stereotypical "wicked stepmother transmuted into a housekeeper," right in the line of Mrs. Danvers, Aunt Reed, and the stepmother of Hansel and Gretel. Even Mr. Baines was continually trying to get away from him or to get him away from himself and Julie. I do agree with another poster who said this film is a textbook on how not to raise a child, but another point is that neither of these people were his parents and they were left in charge of him by circumstance.
That being said, I have to answer another thread with my favorite line in the film: when Phile says, "When Mrs. Baines comes back, I shall ask her for my freedom too." A hoot!
I too found him most annoying, but isn't that the point?
I disagree. I cared about him a great deal. Lots of kids are like that. He behaved like a normal kid who was just thrust into an unusual situation.
shareI liked Phillipe. He seemed like a natural child and very sympathetic trying to help his idol and understand all the secrets and lies from adults.
I often dislike children on screen because I think Hollywood makes them into freaks.
Child characters and actors usually bug the crap out of me, but I loved Phillipe. He was one of the most fully realized child characters I've seen. Most of the time, the children in films are either wise beyond their years or out-of-control brats. Phillipe was a bit of a brat and just as clueless and self-absorbed as is appropriate for his age. He was beautifully played by Bobby Henrey who never seemed to be trying to act like an adult or act at all for that matter, making his character feel all the more authentic. The adorable twinkling blue eyes and freckles helped a lot too.
The murderer is right in this room. Sitting at this table. You may serve the fish.
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(Couldn't resist.)
I often mentally edit out children in movies if I can because they're so annoying. But Phillipe was easy to sympathize with. Look how meekly he took up his own supper tray when Mrs. Baines ordered him to (surely that was her job), how he apologized for his harsh words to her (which she richly deserved) and how hard he tried to help Baines. He could have been nasty to Baines's sweetheart, too; after all, Baines paid more attention to her than to him when they were all together, but he wasn't.
Frankly, I'm surprised at how much criticism and how little sympathy posters here show to a lonely child left to fend for himself in a complex adult world. I realize it's just a movie but that doesn't make the lack of sympathy and understanding any more understandable to me.
Gosh, some of you are rough on the kid. Sure he's a rich kid but really, all kids are annoying fairly often simply because they crave attention. Phil's main fault was that he was lonely. But he was a good kid, willing to help out in the kitchen, etc. He would do anything for his friend, which is more than you can say about most adults. Even when he intruded on Baines at the pastry shop, he sat relatively quiet with his cakes not realizing what was really going on. And Baines, what a nice gent; kind to the tyke even when most of us would have booted him!
Bottom line: I'll take a well-mannered, albeit needy lad from the 40's over these spoiled little egomaniacs of today!
"Phil's main fault was that he was lonely."
That is a great point. Not only was he lonely, but bored to death. Late in the movie a police officer actually offered him something to play with in his own house. He apparently didn't even have any toys of his own in the very formal house. No wonder he needed something to do.
His best friend was the tiny snake "McGregor", that he found in a mortar crack on a balcony. My heart went out to Phile whenever he kissed McGregor. Incidentally, in the short story this film was based on there was no McGregor, so he was invented to further our dislike of the overbearing Mrs. Bains when she does away with him.
I do agee that there was a disquieting quality about Phile. He seemed someone you'd expect to play Oliver Twist, which made for a great poor little rich boy. With his uncut hair and distractibility he was a child who seemed to have everything on the surface, but who lived in a barren emotional landscape.
And let's not forget, very bright and inquisitive and a deep thinker,for his age. He was like many an only child who has mostly adults for companions and must quickly face adult issues of honesty and responsiblity and the world not being all that innocent.
He was in virtually every scene of the movie and his performance carried the movie.
This movie was rather Hitchockian, in its camera shots and angles and the themes of disturbing things hiding beneath normal appearances. I found it very intriguing, and it haunts the mind much like "Seance on a Wet Afternoon".
"Bottom line: I'll take a well-mannered, albeit needy lad from the 40's over these spoiled little egomaniacs of today!"
Pick one:
1) You said it!
2) Boy and how!
3) Truer words were never spoken!
4) I'll say!
Great post, thanks.
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Well said by LaChicaChoca. While often not fond of movie children either, I sympathized with Philippe too for the very reasons mentioned.
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