Nova Pilbeam was a superb child actress. She didn't rely on cute looks, golden curls or singing and dancing. She relied on her talent. She didn't make many films but two were directed by Alfred Hitchcock and one was a superior historical drama. "Little Friend" was her triumph.
The film starts with a surreal nightmare that comes together as the film proceeds. Felicity is awakened by her parents quarrelling. Her parents are on the verge of separating - she is too young to understand the complexities of the relationship between her mother and father and Mr. Hilliard, her mother's lover.
Mr. Hilliard is an actor and has given Felicity a signed photo "to my little friend". She is old enough to know something is wrong. At the park she sees her mother out riding with Mr. Hilliard - after that she decides to "play up". After almost being run over she meets Leonard (Jimmy Hanley) who saves her. They (Felicity and her Nanny, (Jean Cadell) visit his mother's bakery shop and a friendship develops.
Felicity comes from a family of wealth and privilege and the film shows that money cannot buy happiness. There is also a birthday party where Felicity invites Leonard. The other children isolate him because they know he is not of their class.
The film is a harrowing depiction of the effects of divorce on a young girl. The film is stylistically directed by Berthold Viertel and written by Christopher Isherwood and Margaret Kennedy. Wth gowns by Schiaparelli it is a very high class film in every way.
Felicity runs away to visit Hilliard who has said his "little friend" can visit whenever she likes. She wants to ask him not to see her mother anymore but recognises her mother's fur coat on the couch. There is a frightening court room scene where Felicity is treated as a "hostile witness" with both parents using her in their efforts to "win points" over the other. In the stark climax Felicity goes home and tries to gas herself.
It is a film you would not find coming out of Hollywood in 1934.
The film starts with a surreal nightmare that comes together as the film proceeds. Felicity is awakened by her parents quarrelling. Her parents are on the verge of separating - she is too young to understand the complexities of the relationship between her mother and father and Mr. Hilliard, her mother's lover.
Mr. Hilliard is an actor and has given Felicity a signed photo "to my little friend". She is old enough to know something is wrong. At the park she sees her mother out riding with Mr. Hilliard - after that she decides to "play up". After almost being run over she meets Leonard (Jimmy Hanley) who saves her. They (Felicity and her Nanny, (Jean Cadell) visit his mother's bakery shop and a friendship develops.
Felicity comes from a family of wealth and privilege and the film shows that money cannot buy happiness. There is also a birthday party where Felicity invites Leonard. The other children isolate him because they know he is not of their class.
The film is a harrowing depiction of the effects of divorce on a young girl. The film is stylistically directed by Berthold Viertel and written by Christopher Isherwood and Margaret Kennedy. Wth gowns by Schiaparelli it is a very high class film in every way.
Felicity runs away to visit Hilliard who has said his "little friend" can visit whenever she likes. She wants to ask him not to see her mother anymore but recognises her mother's fur coat on the couch. There is a frightening court room scene where Felicity is treated as a "hostile witness" with both parents using her in their efforts to "win points" over the other. In the stark climax Felicity goes home and tries to gas herself.
It is a film you would not find coming out of Hollywood in 1934.