The Child and the Killer

The Child and the Killer (also known as The Man in the Shadows^[1]) is a 1959 British low budget second feature^[2] crime film directed by Max Varnel and starring Patricia Driscoll and Robert Arden.^[3] It was written by Brian Clemens and Eldon Howard and produced by The Danzigers.

The Child and the Killer
British quad poster
Directed by	Max Varnel
Written by	Brian Clemens Eldon Howard
Produced by	Edward J. Danziger Harry Lee Danziger
Starring	Patricia Driscoll Robert Arden Ryck Rydon Richard Williams
Cinematography	James Wilson (as Jimmy Wilson)
Edited by	Maurice Rootes
Music by	Albert Elms
Production company	Danziger Productions
Distributed by	United Artists Corporation (UK)
Release date	February 1959 (1959-02) (UK)
Running time	65 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Plot

Joe, a US army officer, is on the run after committing murder. He invades the home of the widowed Peggy, and orders her son Tommy at gunpoint to guide him through the backwaters of the English countryside to safety. But he reckons without U.S. army Captain Mather, who is in love with Tommy's mother.

Cast

• Patricia Driscoll as Peggy
• Robert Arden as Joe
• Richard Williams as Tommy
• Ryck Rydon as Mather
• John McLaren as Major Finch
• Robert Raglan as Inspector
• Gary Thorne as prior
• Gordon Sterne as Sergeant
• Frank Ellement as White

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Although this highly concentrated, small budget thriller is weak in dialogue and over-generous in dramatic licence, it is convincingly enough acted, particularly by Richard Williams as the boy. When the search gets under way and dialogue is at a minimum, Max Varnel's direction becomes more forceful and the tension of the last scenes is quite effectively held."^[4]

TV Guide called it a "routine crime melodrama".^[5]

AllMovie thought the film had "elements in common with the much-later Kevin Costner vehicle A Perfect World [1993]".^[6]