Goodnight Mr Tom

Marvelous film again dealing with the trials and tribulations of World War 11 England. What makes this film so good is the touching of the human element.This film is definitely in the tradition of such British line classics such as "Mrs. Miniver" and "Hope and Glory." As is the case with this film, we see the desperation of people in the time of war. The performances are outstanding here especially by the embittered John Thaw, who is assigned a child who has been evacuated from the London bombing. We soon see why this child wets his bed. He comes from a lunatic mother who has abused him terribly. The old man takes to the child and brings happiness into his sad life. When the child is returned to his mother, the old man goes to London and seeks him out only to find tragedy. He literally kidnaps the boy and is able to convince a higher up that the child is better off with him than being in a boy's home. The picture is so good because it deals and builds on endearing relationships.

10 - 10 - 10, ad infinitum. First of all, to the critics who are so hung up on the movie not following the book. So, what else is new? And, who cares. They are two separate entities. Duh!! This Masterpiece was an unknown for me. What a great, great surprise. I was raised during WW2 and drove my family nuts. I was an - er Anglophile - greatly admiring the Brits and their stance during those years. Oh, and I never missed a John Mills movie. A man that befriended me came from England to get away from the war and opened a record shop a few blocks from my home and it became my second home. Most of his records crossed the Atlantic with him so I had a host of British RCAs and Parlophones. One more item of a personal nature. There was a mag called Picture Post and I wrote them a letter. The first part - I was just a kid - had to do with what was right about America and wrong about England, the second part was vice-versa. Guess what? They published the good stuff about England, eliminating the rest of my tome. I got a lot of letters from all over Britain and met a merchant seaman who later became a radio operator on the Queen Mary. He stayed with us whenever the ship came to NYC (where I was born and raised). The setting of the movie automatically appealed to me. The story had my wife and myself shedding a few tears, it was so beautifully told - warm and wonderful. The acting by the main characters was excellent. At times, early on, the lad reminded me of Roddy McDowall at that age. As far as I'm concerned this is one of the most impressive things ever put on film. I recommend it - highly. As I said in the beginning ---- 10 - 10 - 10, ad infinitum.

This made-for-TV movie (or 'feature-length drama' as we call them in England) has a seemingly special place in the hearts of the nation and I fully appreciate why this might be. As a sweetly sentimental piece of family entertainment starring the undoubtedly popular John Thaw, it could hardly fail. Yet, curiously, fail it does on a number of levels. Partly there is a problem with the cast, but I really don't think the fault is Thaw's. He was an actor of considerable merit and ability whose death elevated him to unofficial sainthood - making criticism of any work featuring him rather a tricky task as one might appear churlish. However, I rather enjoyed his gentle and satisfyingly nuanced performance in the curmudgeonly-yet-softhearted titular role. He certainly did well with the material to hand, and the story offers some potentially weighty issues which ought to be grist to any competent actor's mill. Other characters, as has been correctly observed by various reviewers, are less satisfyingly fleshed out. This may be due in large part to their being allocated such little screen time & dialogue as to prevent the actors developing them to any degree. Even then, this might not greatly undermine the drama and it's worth noting that two supporting roles (the village woman who gently ribs Tom and the ARP warden in London) are well matched against Thaw. The greatest fault lies with the scenes involving young William. There is a total lack of characterisation from the young actor and it's just the death-knell for the whole enterprise. As an example, when Will's best friend Zach has to leave (because his dad's been critically injured), Will just stands still with a blank expression on his face as though he can't remember if he's supposed to feel anything or respond or whatever. Who knows, maybe that was the best shot they could get out of him? Yes, the boy's meant to be emotionally damaged, but he barely displays any hint of genuine fondness for Tom. He smirks when he ought not to, he appears distant when he should be warm and human, and that's just me generalising. The intimate effect is very jarring and takes one out of the drama. Thaw's acting might still have carried the day, if it weren't for the toe-curling shattering of mood in two scenes. I refer, of course, to the nightmare scene and to the cycling scene at the end. In the former, bad direction and poor acting combine when the boy sits bolt upright and yells wide-eyed to the camera as it zooms in; meant to be shocking but so unintentionally embarrassing that it becomes pure 'narm'. That I no longer believed in William as a character was merely reinforced right at the end in a final moment of narm when his cries of "Yaaay" as he cycles down the hill toward the great emotional climax come spilling out his mouth as though recited in a first year Latin class; it's certainly not from the heart. In the end, the boy just couldn't act and it torpedoed the whole damn thing for me. It's pity; I might have really enjoyed it too.

This made-for-TV film is a brilliant one. This is probably the best and favourite role by BAFTA winning John Thaw (Kavanagh Q.C. and Inspector Morse). Tom Oakley (Thaw) widowed man has lived in a village alone for a while since his wife and son died, and now he has been landed with an evacuee called Willaim Beech (Nick Robinson). As he gets to know this child he starts to develop a friendship. Until Willaim's Mum (Annabelle Apsion) wants him back. After Tom gets worried about William not contacting him he goes to London to find him. In the end Willaim gets his home with a loving family (or Dad). Set during the Second World War this is an excellent film. It was nominated the BAFTA Lew Grade Award, and it won the National Television Award for Most Popular Drama. John Thaw was number 3 on TV's 50 Greatest Stars. Very good!

This movie resonated with me on two levels. As a kid I was evacuated from London and planted on unwilling hosts in a country village. While I escaped the bombing and had experiences which produced treasured memories (for example hearing a nightingale sing one dark night for the very first time) and enjoying a life I never could have had in London, I missed my family and worried about them. Tom is an old man whose wife and child have both died and who lives alone in a small country village.As an old man who is now without a wife whose kids have gotten married and live far away in another province, I am again sometime lonely. The boy's mother is a religious fanatic with very odd ideas of raising a child. Since a deep affection has grown between old Tom Oakley and this young lad, Tom goes in search of him and finally rescues him from very odd and dangerous circumstances. At the end of the story there is great tension since due to some bureaucratic ruling it seems that the child is going to lose someone who has developed a loving relationship with him.

John Thaw, of Inspector Morse fame, plays old Tom Oakley in this movie. Tom lives in a tiny English village during 1939 and the start of the Second World War. A bit of a recluse, Tom has not yet recovered from the death of his wife and son while he was serving during the First World War. If you can imagine Inspector Morse old and retired, twice as crochety as when he was a policeman, then you've got Tom Oakley's character. Yet this heart of flint is about to melt. London children are evacuated in advance of the blitz. Young William (Willie) Beech is billeted with the protesting Tom. Willie is played to good effect by Nick Robinson. This boy is in need of care with a capital C. Behind in school, still wetting the bed, and unable to read are the smallest of his problems. He comes from a horrific background in London, with a mother who cannot cope, to put it mildly. Slowly, yet steadily, man and boy warm to each other. Tom discovers again his ability to love and care. And the boy learns to accept this love and caring. See Tom and Willie building a bomb shelter at the end of their garden. See Willie's joy at what is probably his first ever birthday party thrown by Tom. Not to give away the ending, but Willie is adopted by Tom after much struggle, and the pair begin a new life much richer for their mutual love. In this movie, Thaw and Robinson are following in a long line of movies where man meets boy and develop a mutual love. See the late Dirk Bogarde and Jon Whiteley in "Spanish Gardener". Or Clark Gable and Carlo Angeletti in "It Started in Naples". Or Robert Ulrich and Kenny Vadas in "Captains Courageous". Or Mel Gibson and Nick Stahl in "Man Without a Face". Two points of interest. This is the only appearance of Thaw that I know of where he sings. Only a verse of a hymn, New Jerusalem, but he does sing. Second, young Robinson also starred in a second movie featuring "Tom" in the title, "Tom's Midnight Garden", which is based on a classic children's novel.

This film has been on my wish list for ten years and I only recently found it on DVD when my partner's grandson was given it. He watched it at and was thrilled to learn that it was about my generation - born in 1930 and evacuated in 1939 and he wanted to know more about it - and me. Luckily I borrowed it from him and watched it on my own and I cried all through it. Not only did it capture the emotions, the class distinction, the hardship and the warmth of human relationships of those years (as well as the cruelties (spoken and unspoken); but it was accurate! I am also a bit of an anorak when it comes to ARP uniforms, ambulances (LCC) in the right colour (white) and all the impedimenta of the management of bomb sites and the work of the Heavy Rescue Brigades. I couldn't fault any of this from my memories, and the sandbagged Anderson shelter and the WVS canteens brought it all back. The difference between the relatively unspoiled life in the village and war-torn London was also sharply presented I re-lived 1939/40 and my own evacuation from London with this production! I know Jack Gold's work, of course, and one would expect no more from him than this meticulous detail; but it went far beyond the accurate representation of the facts and touched deep chords about human responses and the only half-uttered value judgements of those years. It was certainly one of the great high spots in John Thaw's acting career and of Gold's direction and deserves to be better known. It is a magnificent film and I have already ordered a couple of copies to send to friends.

The plot of GOODNIGHT MR TOM on paper makes it seem we are in for a large dose of maudlin,sickly sentiment.But,talented director Jack Gold is an expert on touching the emotions in the right manner,and it emerges instead as a compelling,deeply moving wartime drama with excellent production and lead performances.One of the best,if not the best TV movies of the 1990's which possibly would've had even greater success if it had been released in the cinemas. The evacuation of children to countryside towns and villages in World War II was of course a common practice,but in the case of the young boy here was doubly important because of a wretched home life in the UK's capital.The horrors of war on the home front are not drifted over though,and the construction of the film until it's throat-lumping,misty-eyed ending leaves us with a sense of optimism despite what has happened before.It is almost(but not quite)worthy of comparison with the finale to IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE(1946).All in all,a modern classic.

Very Cozy No harm i love this kind of movie very cozy and Lightweighted for the heart this one healed me an excellent film very touching i just found my self smiling in tears.

Trailer—Goodnight Mr Tom