The Last Load

THE LAST LOAD is a predecessor to the Children's Film Foundation movies and shares plenty of similarities with them. The heroes are a gang of bright and plucky kids who end up tackling a criminal gang whose action seem almost murderous at times. The young hero is a particularly interesting character, a Scottish lad with a talent for fixing objects, running his own little repair shop in his spare time. Hard to imagine him in the modern era! The villains are entertaining, as per usual, and the adults are generally helpful which makes a change for this genre. Most impressive of all is the direction, which adds a real frisson of excitement and entertainment to the proceedings; it's just that good.