Sammy Going South (1963)

Sammy Going South (retitled A Boy Ten Feet Tall for its later US release) is a 1963 British adventure film directed by Alexander Mackendrick, photographed by Erwin Hillier and starring Edward G. Robinson, Fergus McClelland and Constance Cummings.

Sammy Going Southwas based on a novel by W.H. Canaway and adapted for the screen by Denis Cannan. It was produced by Michael Balcon Productions and Bryanston Films. The film had a difficult production period; Robinson suffered a heart attack and some cast members were bitten by snakes. It was first broadcast on British television on BBC2 on Christmas Day 1970 and on American television by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in 1971.

Synopsis

Ten-year-old English boy Sammy Hartland (Fergus McClelland) lives in Port Said, Egypt, with his parents. When they are killed in a bombing during the Suez Crisis, the boy flees the city in the ensuing panic. He sets out to reach his only living relative, an aunt who lives 5000 miles to the south in Durban, South Africa - at the other end of the continent and in a different hemisphere. Along his journey Sammy encounters a colourful array of characters. His first "guide" is an Arab peddler who dies in a freak accident.

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