ianlouisiana Review of The Mudlark

The Mudlark (1950)

Heartwarming tale of a cockney waif who meets the queen........

[8/10 · 20 September 2008]

The Headmaster of my old school was so taken with "The Mudlark" that he arranged a private showing in the Refectory.I can still see the loudspeakers with their Art Deco designs and the huge lumbering projector manned by the Science master who had been a Wireless Operator in the desert in World War two and was deemed to have the requisite skills. In a short prelude by the English master,we boys were told that the movie illustrated the very best aspects of British Society at the height of the Empire,and that the as yet uncrowned Queen Elizabeth would,to us,be as significant a figure as Queen Victoria had been to the eponymous "Mudlark".We all cheered happily and would no doubt have thrown our caps in the air had we been allowed to wear them indoors. There is no doubt Victoria reigned over a more cohesive society if not a more equitable one.Orphanned mudlark( a kind of river - based beachcomber) (Master A.Ray) finds a cameo of a pretty lady and discovers it is a likeness of Queen Victoria,described to him as the "mother of her people" a phrase he takes rather too literally.He sets off on a journey to return the cameo to Her Majesty. Mr A.Guinness is deliciously sardonic as Disraeli,arguably the most influential Prime Minister of the era.Mr F.Currie a vastly different and probably more true to life John Brown than Billy Connolly's wish - fulfilment in "Mrs Brown".As Victoria Miss I.Dunne is careful and respectful,if a little too heavily made up.Mr A.Steel and Miss B.Campbell are very charming as Lt. McHatton and Lady Prior respectively.Master Ray's is a typical "cockney kid" performance from an era when there were very few actual cockney kids in the British studios. Sadly,like many another child actor,his career stuttered as he grew older. The movie was heartwarming stuff for 1950s kids - cockneys or otherwise - and wakened an interest in my schoolfellows for scouring the banks of the nearby River Wey to absolutely no purpose except to exasperate parents confronted with baskets of muddy shoes and socks.Complaints to the Headmaster became so common that he issued a Draconian ban on any boy going within 50 yards of the river.We thought that was a tad hypocritical since it was his enthusiasm for "The Mudlark" that gave us the encouragement in the first place.