The Yellow Balloon

Frankie is a small boy. He lives in London after the war. Bombed buildings stand all over the city. Frankie is playing in one of those ruins with his friend Ronnie. Ronnie falls and dies. Frankie holds himself to blame. Somebody else saw it happen. The one who saw is a criminal in hiding. The man comes to the boy. He frightens him by holding him responsible. That is how he binds Frankie to him. The child ends up in the hands of a grown man. The film builds its suspense from there. In Britain it was first classified for adults only. The decision was reversed after an outcry. The boy playing the lead could not watch his own film. Andrew Ray and Kenneth More appear in the seventy six minute film, a British production J. Lee Thompson finished in 1953.