The Adventures of Hal 5 (1958) User Reviews

Mostly cute kiddie adventure

[Skint111 · 4/10 · 5 June 2022]

A car with a mind of its own is swapped between owners.

A sort of Herbie before Herbie came along, albeit one represented by simple line drawings of the changing expressions of the car's 'face' on the radiator grille. It's quite sweet stuff, very much a product of its gentle time, with an undercurrent of deceitful business dealings, as exemplified by the crooked mechanic. Lots of pleasant rural photography helps.

Director Don Sharp went on to do lots of great Hammer horrors, star William Russell went on to try and cover up William Hartnell getting his lines mixed up on Doctor Who.

Typical Childrens Film Foundation Movie

[boblipton · 4/10 · 4 July 2023]

John Glyn-Jones is the crooked manager of a local station in a chain of service stations. He cheats David Morrell on the repairs to his tractor, forcing him to sell his antique car for a song, which he sells in turn to vicar William Russell. He then kites up various repairs that don't fix the problem. Meanwhile, Russell gets on with his duties, spending a lot of time with his niece and nephew, leaving Hal Five -- that's the car -- to tend to his own vengeance.

It's a Children's Film Foundation movie, and it has the usual hallmarks of such movies: beautiful camerawork by Jo Jago, and a simple-minded telling of the story, with clumsily-devised slapstick punishments on mean Mr. Glyn-Jones. The character of the car is indicated by occasionally imposing a caricature face on it. Given that it times in at less than an hour, it seems pretty leisurely in its pacing. All in all, it seems likely to please no one but elderly people who have no idea what children really like: lots of blood, thunder, and messiness.