Pennington-Richards, from an original story by James Brown produced and directed by Donald Swanson for Swan Films. THE MAGIC GARDEN, script by Ferdinand Webb, Donald Swanson and C. John Davies is properly hobbledehoyish as a modern Welsh boy. Griffith, as well as in the "he who suffers conquers" theme. Chips" quality, imparted in the performance of D. In the style of the documentary, it has a certain "Mr. Indeed, it is largely his performance that gives the picture such innocence and charm that one almost misses its revelations of pitiful poverty and greed and the great pathos of transitional civilization-until one stops to think.Also on the bill at the theatre is "David," a British documentary film, written and directed by Paul Dickson, which gives a touching and inspiring account of the life of an old Welsh miner who ends his days as caretaker of a boys' school. Ramokgopa who steals both the money and the film.
And when he lights out through the village, like a wild bird, with neighbors in pursuit, dogs barking and people hallooing, the comic crescendo is intense.Alongside of him, such others as Dolly Rathebe in the interesting role of a marriageable young woman or David Mnkwanazi as a merchant with greedy ideas are good, but it is Mr. Such a rascal, he is! Such a stubborn and comically solemn thief! To see him persist in his intention of having that money is a joy of the film. But the whole thing is done with such abandon, such fanciful impudence, and to such a gay and insinuating tempo developed through the jazz music of a tin flute and guitars, that the fantasy gains momentum, the humor of the mischief multiplies and, before you know it, you're in a mad whirl that would do credit to Rene Clair.Among the native actors, the most distinguished and amusing, by far, is a fellow named Tommy Ramokgopa, who also wrote some of the music that is used. It is just a matter of the money changing hands as the thief hides it or loses it, then re-steals it, for a sequence of boisterous escapades. But before it reaches a finish, with the money back in the priest's hands and the thief, a slippery rascal, in the heavy hands of the police, the forty pounds has done more service, accidentally, in the cause of good on behalf of several unsuspecting natives than it could ever have done otherwise.We won't go into details. Away he goes through the church door, with the old man and the priest in pursuit, shouting "stop, thief!" to rouse the whole quarter. And while the two are praying for heavenly guidance as to how the money should be spent to help the multitude of needy, a skulking thief makes off with it.
#The magic garden story professional#
Yet it is fair to say of this picture that, for all its professional faults-and these it has in abundance, as do most films produced as it was-it stands in about the same relation to "Cry, the Beloved Country" as does the "Miracle in Milan" of De Sica to his previous "The Bicycle Thief."As a matter of fact, "The Magic Garden," being a fantasy of sorts, might even better be titled "Miracle in Johannesburg." For the jovial yet wistful little story it blithely and impishly tells has to do with a series of seeming miraculous benefactions that occur.On a normal and tranquil Sunday morning in a native suburb of Johannesburg, an old colored man makes a grand donation of his life savings, forty pounds, to his priest. Also its amateur performance may be so apparent and unsure that the cleverness of the whole creation by Mr. "The Magic Garden," which popped in yesterday at the Trans-Lux Sixtieth Street, shows us just one side of that chasm, the native or black side, a wholly different mood.This rollicking little picture, which Donald Swanson, an Englishman, has made in a Johannesburg native quarter with an all-black, all-amateur cast, is such an ingenuous fable-such a genial and helter-skelter lark-that its solemn and poignant implications may be missed in the tumble of its fun. "Cry, the Beloved Country," which came through a fortnight ago to start the cycle rolling, is a serious and deeply moving film, revealing the tragic social chasm that separates blacks and whites.
#The magic garden story movie#
After all the years of blissful ignorance in which the movie audience has been permitted to live, in so far as some comprehension of modern South Africa is concerned, it is interesting that two pictures should have come along within two weeks to open up fascinating vistas on native life in and around Johannesburg.
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