Soapbox Derby (1958)

Soapbox Derby (1958). Soapbox Derby: Directed by Darcy Conyers. With Michael Crawford, Keith Davis, Roy Townsend, Alan Coleshill. Children's drama. A children's gang in London called The Battersea Bats decide to build a car and enter it in a soapbox derby. A rival gang The Victoria Victors hear about the car and set out to steal it's plans. One of the Bats is thrown out of the gang for dirty fighting so joins the Victors for revenge. They plan things to make it look like it was one of the Bats who stole the car. Watch out for a very young 'Michael Crawford' in his first screen appearance.

“In Soapbox Derby, which runs a hair more than an hour, we get 15-year-old Michael Crawford as head of a u0026quot;gangu0026quot; (more a club) called the Battersea Bats. They are keen to enter a soapbox derby and work hard on designing and fabricating a car. But a rival gang also wants to win. But they decide to steal the plans and copy the design rather than do their own work. More sophisticated and realistic than the US u0026quot;Our Gangu0026quot; shorts, the film shows the triumph of good work over those who steal and lie. Very watchable. The on-location shooting is excellent. Although the film ends with the bad boys losing the race (of course) and falling into mud (for a good belly laugh) it also has its dramatic moments as when one boyu0026#39;s little sister gets run over by a truck.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eCrawford is especially spunky and shows his prowess at knockabout comedy. Cast also includes Mark Daly as Grandpa, Jean Ireland as the mother, and Denis Shaw as the odious Mr. Lender.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAlso of interest in Soapbox Derby is a truly ugly little car called an Isetta, almost a 3-wheeled car with the single door on the front of the vehicle.”