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Heart of a Child
Heart of a Child
	British theatrical poster
Directed by	Clive Donner
Written by	Leigh Vance
Based on	Heart of a Child by Phyllis Bottome
Produced by	Alfred Shaughnessy
Starring	Jean Anderson; Donald Pleasence
Cinematography	Peter Hennessy
Edited by	John Trumper
Music by	Bruce Montgomery
Production; company	Beaconsfield Productions
Distributed by	J. Arthur Rank Film Distributors (UK)
Release date	April 1958;
Running time	73 min.
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Heart of a Child is a 1958 British drama film directed by Clive Donner and starring Jean Anderson and Donald Pleasence.^[1]^[2] It was adapted by Leigh Vance from the 1940 novel of the same title by Phyllis Bottome.^[3]

Plot

During wartime rationing, Karl, a young Austrian boy, is beaten by his father, Spiel, who threatens to sell the boy's St. Bernard dog to the butcher to pay for food for the family. However, much to the father's fury, Karl sells the dog himself to a kindly veterinarian. The dog, with the help of Maria, a spinster, then rescues Karl after he is trapped in a snowstorm. Maria ends up marrying the vet, and Karl's father ends up letting Karl keep the dog.

Cast

Jean Anderson as Maria
Donald Pleasence as Spiel
Richard Williams as Karl
Carla Challoner as Elsa
Maureen Pryor as Frau Spiel
Norman Macowan as Heiss
John Glyn-Jones as Priest
Willoughby Goddard as Stott
Andrew Keir as Constable
John Boxer as Breuer

Production

It was the second feature film directed by Clive Donner, who had turned down two films after his debut The Secret Place. He says they reshot the ending twice at the request of Earl St John who was dissatisfied with it. Then Sydney Box wrote another ending and that was used. Donner said the film "was not a happy experience" even though there was location work in Austria.^[4]

Reception

Donner said "I don't think it did as great business as it could have done because sentimentality of that sort is something I wasn't right for and I think I was fighting it. If I'd really gone for broke I think I would've done big, big business."^[4]