Little Fugitive (1953)

Directed by

Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin, Raymond Abrashkin

Genre

drama film, children's film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 15m

Rating

6.9 of 10 from 67 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A little boy thinks he has killed his older brother and runs away to Coney Island. He spends the day alone on the boardwalk and beach, finding small adventures and discoveries.

gentlenaturalisticwhimsicallonelygrittykineticobservantquietly suspenseful

What happens

Little Fugitive is a 1953 American independent drama film co-written and co-directed by Raymond Abrashkin (credited as Ray Ashley), Morris Engel, and Ruth Orkin, which tells the story of a child alone on Coney Island. It stars Richie Andrusco as the title character, and Richard Brewster as his older brother. The film was screened at 14th Venice International Film Festival, where it was awarded the Silver Lion, and nominated for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story, at the 26th Academy Awards. An acknowledged influence on the French New Wave, the film is considered by modern-day critics to be a landmark film because of its naturalistic style and groundbreaking use of nonprofessional actors in lead roles. In 1997, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film is the first and best known of Engel's three feature films. It was followed by Lovers and Lollipops in 1956 and Weddings and Babies, which was filmed in 1957 and released in 1960. All three films were stylistically similar and were filmed with hand-held 35 mm cameras. The cameras used for Little Fugitive and Lovers and Lollipops did not record sound, so the dialogue and sound effects had to be dubbed subsequent to filming, but Weddings and Babies holds the distinction of being the first fictional feature filmed with a portable camera that allowed for synchronized sound. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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