Thursday's Child (1943)

Thursday’s Child: Directed by Rodney Ackland. With Sally Ann Howes, Wilfrid Lawson, Kathleen O’Regan, Stewart Granger. Family tensions arise after a schoolgirl becomes a successful child actor.

“Based on a 1941 novel by Donald Macardle, u0026#39;Thursdayu0026#39;s Childu0026#39; was the first and last film ever directed by playwright u0026amp; screenwriter Rodney Ackland (1908-1991). According to his memoir u0026#39;The Celluloid Mistressu0026#39; (1954), his yearned-for debut as a director was severely compromised in execution by factors of both time and money, the completed film minus key scenes Associated British pulled the plug on before they could be filmed; which presumably explains the various loose ends.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAcklandu0026#39;s 12 year-old discovery Sally Ann Howes in the title role is certainly convincing as a young prodigy who becomes a hit in a movie called u0026#39;Strange Barrieru0026#39;. The film starts light-heartedly enough – and we get the usual jokes about vulgarian studio personnel at the fictitious Marathon Studios – but the tone gets dismayingly melodramatic in its later stages, with direction to match. Veteran cameraman Desmond Dickinson does his best, but the haste, low budget and director Acklandu0026#39;s inexperience shows in mike shadows, stagy compositions and exaggerated closeups in the style of Eisenstein extremely jarringly cut together. (During one key scene between the heroineu0026#39;s mother and her elder sister I became distracted by the almost Caligari-esquely stylized twigs dangling outside the window behind them.) The experience resembles watching a tightrope walker teetering this way and then that as one wonders what technical goof the film is going to commit next.”