T!GER |3/-\Y 5

Hayley Mills makes her screen debut alongside father John in this sensitive, suspenseful drama. In 1950s Cardiff, a young girl witnesses a Polish sailor murder his girlfriend, then befriends the killer
Though Hayley Mills came to Tiger Bay with no formal acting experience whatsoever, the film immediately established her as one of the most accomplished child actors of her generation.

A poignant drama and an effective thriller, it shares its central theme - the relationship between a lonely, precocious child and a mysterious adult - with her fondly remembered British release, Whistle Down The Wind. However, while Tiger Bay is a film about childhood, and one that frequently adopts a child's view of the world, it isn't, in any conventional sense, a kids' film, and part of what makes it so successful is its engagement with adult themes and issues.

The story follows 12-year-old misfit Gillie (Hayley Mills), a Londoner living with her aunt in Cardiff's Tiger Bay. Dashing around her tenement block, Gillie inadvertently witnesses Polish sailor Bronik Korchinsky (Buchholz) shoot his girlfriend dead and, without really knowing why, she takes the gun, hides it and lies to the police about what she saw.

Desperate to retrieve the weapon, Bronik goes after Gillie and the pair hide out in the hills. As Inspector Graham (John Mills) closes in, Bronik and Gillie establish a tentative but genuine friendship, and she does her best to help him make his escape. It's the naturalness and easy intelligence of Hayley Mills' performance that makes her such an effective focus, and her father's quiet portrayal of the firm but fair Inspector suggests he knew this was his daughter's gig. Director J Lee Thompson (who, like Mills Sr came to the film fresh from Ice Cold In Alex), shoots key scenes from Gillie's perspective - an approach that makes odd little incidents highly evocative, and also highlights some intriguing moral ambiguities. Why, after all, is it wrong to lie to the police, if telling the truth will merely generate more pain?

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• FILM