Why Tommy Won’t Eat
Film Reviews . 16 mm. Sound. 20 mins. National Film Board of Canada, Sackville House, 40 Piccadilly, W.l.
This film, which is in colour, deals with the principal reasons for healthy, normal development in children, and seeks to explain how to avoid feeding difficulties rather than how to cope with them once they have arisen. It stresses the well-known ideas of being elastic with regard to routine, allowing babies to experiment with their food even at the cost of some messiness, etc.
The story deals with one particular child who would not eat, and it explains that in that case the mother was at fault, as on the one hand she was too rigid and anxious, while, on the other, she was lacking in friendliness and understanding. On the whole, the film is well balanced and pleasantly photographed. It gives a good sound basis of approach to this matter without going into great detail. It would be very useful as a basis for discussion amongst nursery school teachers, parentteacher organizations, ‘health visitors, and other similar groups.
E.H.R. The Rocking Horse Winner. (Featuring John Howard Davies, John Mills, Valerie Hobson and Ronald Squire.) 90 mins.
The appearance of a doctor and the death of a patient from extreme mental strain would seem the reason for a review of this film in Mental Health, but its interest for readers probably lies more in other details of the film that would not generally be labelled ” psychological “.
The story, taken from one of D. H. Lawrence, is of a sensitive child, worried about his beautiful, idle and extravagant mother and her apparent need for money, who finds that by riding his rocking horse in a frenzy he can sometimes spot the winner in a race, but at great cost to himself. What I can spot as winning is a real growth in psychological understanding of ordinary characters ; but the ignorant and sensational treatment of mental abnormality must be counted as loss so far as popular psychological education is concerned, though it achieves its purpose of rousing tremendous excitement.
Not many years ago the mother would have been just bad and beautiful, idle and extravagant and selfish (as she is) ; neglectful, unkind and unfeeling, (which, on the whole, she isn’t). She is understandable, likeable even, and, although her faults are the indirect cause of her son’s death, the audience can pity her throughout the story, without demanding, as just retribution, a sense of overwhelming ing remorse at the end. The uncle, too, is a credible mixture of strength and weakness : the pillar of his sister’s unstable household, genuinely fond of his nephew, a gambler through and through, he lets Paul go on with his dangerous game, as a character formed of these component parts certainly would. The innocence of Paul and the unreasonableness of his worry is high drama : ” We’ve won ?300 ! ” he tells his uncle ; ” 300 pennies, you mean “, says that astonished gentleman. Paul is puzzled and uncertain. ” I thought it was pounds “, he says, but is not sure of the difference. As the house whispers in gathering crescendo, ” must have money “, Paul casts his haunted face round the room, seeing, but without understanding, the luxurious furnishings and priceless ornaments on which his eyes fall.
Perhaps it is paying too high a compliment to psychology to give it all the credit for the subtlety of the character drawing in D. H. Lawrence’s story and the presentation of this film, but it can claim, I think, that it has taught people that human personality is infinitely variable, and weaned them from satisfaction in the wholly good and wholly bad. It can certainly claim that it has increased their interest in the minds and behaviour of children. There remains, however, the death from overstrain of the brain, accompanied by deafening orchestral music. It seems as though the cinema has learned that the mind is sensitive and delicate and liable to behave strangely under strain ; perhaps the time is coming when the other half of the truth will be told, that the mind is also tough, adaptable and resilient?but that, of course, is less dramatic. P.E.W.
A Psychoneurosis with Compulsive Trends in the Making. 16 mm. 40 mins. Dr R. MacKeith, Department of Child Health, Guy’s Hospital, London., S.E.I.
This is an interesting study of obsessional trends in a child of a highly obsessional mother, The mother was under psychiatric treatment throughout the child’s early life, and the film is intended to show how this resulted in a modification of some of the child’s own trends. It shows an extraordinarily interesting perfectionist drive towards physical skills on the part of a very young child who performed amazing feats in the first two years, but tended to deteriorate later and developed considerable anxiety. The photography in this film is not particularly good, and is therefore trying to watch. The film, which is essentially documentary with no particular story, needs a great deal of explanation. In the opinion of the reviewer, it would be somewhat unconvincing to people who are not already converted to the psychological approach, and really it is suitable only for specialist groups. C.H-S.
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