Rent The Rocking Horse Winner (1949)

Psychological Drama. - The Rocking Horse Winner review by Steve

This is faithfully adapted from a short story by DH Laurence, about a lonely eight year old boy (John Howard Davies), and his oedipal desire for his elegant, materialistic mother (Valerie Hobson) who is frustrated at the inability of her husband (Hugh Sinclair) to provide.

Aided by his uncle (Ronald Squire) and the gardener (John Mills), who both like a flutter, the child discovers that when he rides his rocking horse, he can predict winners of horse races at very advantageous odds. They become rich and use the money to try and quench Hobson's averice. But every time, the boy has to ride the horse harder for the same reward.

So it's a Freudian allegory. The rocking horse scenes are shot like wild, opiated, expressionistic dreams, and they build to a raw, intense climax. And a petit mort... These episodes are beautifully photographed, with a superb score. 

 It doesn't really work as a realistic narrative- there's no sensible reason why the boy should be able to predict horse race winners so successfully! But the film is a sinister and compelling parable on greed.  It's a classic of British cinema and a true original. 

A Brilliantly Dark & Mystical Morality Drama about Love & Money, based on a DH Lawrence short story - The Rocking Horse Winner review by PV

This film was made in 1949 and set in 1948 though from a 1926 short story by DH Lawrence who said he wrote it to show how love and money cannot co-exist well together.

What I find astounding about this film is how in many ways it would be too shocking to make today. The tragic ending (NO SPOILERS) for sure would be too strong for Hollywood, which worships children and must have a happy ending to everything; also the behaviour of the parents especially the mother. The Metoo mob would simply not allow any blame to be attached for a mother.

Superbly filmed, this mystical drama about the supernatural could have been a Hammer Horror film really - it's a haunted house story, in effect.

The social class boundaries are dated, and one wonders how an upper class family with a nanny and gardener, living in a massive mansion with grounds, and buying a very expensive rocking horse as a Christmas present, could be so short of money. But then, blame the parents...

I loved the trance-like rocking horse scenes, especially a cloud shot of horses.

Of course John Mills is one of acting's greats; the boy John Howard Davies, a child actor from a very well-off family connected to the film business (dad was a major screenwriter), also starred as Oliver Twist in the class David Lean film, went on to a management/comedy career at the BBC mostly, producing and directing a great many comedies, including Steptoe, Fawlty Towers, Monty Python and., notoriously, he is the man who in effect sacked Benny Hill by failing to renews his ITV contract (Hill then locked himself away and more or less ate himself to death - tragedy in comedy...)

A classic. 5 stars.