The Intruder (1953): A companion piece to The League of Gentlemen and another children-and-bombsites film

This is not a proto version of Royston Vesey, but another film about how soldiers fared after the  second world war in which Jack Hawkins plays the Colonel.

But, unlike in The League of Gentlemen, its not Hawkins who has turned to crime at the start of the film but one of his wartime NCOs, played by Michael Medwin. Hawkins comes home from an afternoon of golf to find that Medwin has broken into his house with burglary on his mind.

The rest of the film uncovers what has happened to Medwin to place him on the wrong side of the law.

It's a sad story, but there is humour along the way too. I can't think of a single film with Dora Bryan in the cast that isn't much the better for her presence.

The reason I am writing about The Intruder is that it is another children-and-bombsites film. Medwin comes home from the war to marry Susan Shaw (who turns out to have found another man) and take care of his young brother, who has been living with an aunt and uncle of theirs.

We first see the boy playing with a gang of others on a bomb site, happy and dirty. But when he returns home he is told off for playing with common boys and Medwin has to intervene to save him from a beating. It's clear this has been the uncle's way of dealing with the boy.

The bombsite scene is a short one, but the boys' play there is seen in a wholly positive light, perhaps for the first time since Hue and Cry in 1947. Medwin's uncle, who disapproves of children who play on bombsites, is a prig and a bully.

Thanks to Reelstreets, I know that this scene was filmed on a London E1 bombsite between Pennington Street and St George's in the East. Remarkably, the site remains undeveloped to this day.

The Intruder was on Talking Pictures TV the other night, but does not appear to be on its online catch up service TPTV Encore. It's certainly worth watching if you get the chance.

I wrote a long post on children and bombsites in September 2022, and my major discovery since then has been the 1958 film Innocent Sinners. One day I will rewrite that long post, incorporating my later finds.