Soapbox Derby (1958) User Reviews

Gang Warfare in Battersea

[richardchatten · 5/10 · 26 July 2021]

Battersea Power Station towers majestically over this fairly early Children's Film Foundation presentation starring a tousle-haired young Michael Crawford, attractively shot on location in glorious summer weather in the days when it's chimneys still belched smoke, bubble cars were considered cool and the leader of the rival gang of ruffians wears shorts. His father, though, is played by Denis Shaw - probably the meanest-looking heavy ever to appear in a CFF production - who himself does one hairy-looking stunt in a quarry before he and his ne'r-do-well son suffer the concluding ritual humiliation already becoming a CFF convention.

The strongest language any of the kids uses is "Oh, blow it!!"; but modern audiences are more likely to take offence at one of the boys constantly being called "four eyes".

A Young Michael Crawford

[drednm · 14 December 2014]

In Soapbox Derby, which runs a hair more than an hour, we get 15-year-old Michael Crawford as head of a "gang" (more a club) called the Battersea Bats. They are keen to enter a soapbox derby and work hard on designing and fabricating a car. But a rival gang also wants to win. But they decide to steal the plans and copy the design rather than do their own work. More sophisticated and realistic than the US "Our Gang" shorts, the film shows the triumph of good work over those who steal and lie. Very watchable. The on-location shooting is excellent. Although the film ends with the bad boys losing the race (of course) and falling into mud (for a good belly laugh) it also has its dramatic moments as when one boy's little sister gets run over by a truck.

Crawford is especially spunky and shows his prowess at knockabout comedy. Cast also includes Mark Daly as Grandpa, Jean Ireland as the mother, and Denis Shaw as the odious Mr. Lender.

Also of interest in Soapbox Derby is a truly ugly little car called an Isetta, almost a 3-wheeled car with the single door on the front of the vehicle.

First saw in 60s

[marktayloruk · 8/10 · 13 February 2021]

Just saw again. Shows one reason I want to turn the clock back - only drawback nonBattersea accent . I speak as someone from there! Otherwise - why can't life and today's kids be like that?

A fine film

[Leofwine_draca · 8/10 · 7 November 2018]

SOAPBOX DERBY is another fine Children's Film Foundation adventure, clocking in at an hour and shot in Battersea. Anybody who has fond memories of old-fashioned childhoods involving fights, chases, races, go-karts and outdoor fun will be in their element with this one, which provides crisp black-and-white photography and an enthusiastic cast of youngsters headed by a pre-stardom Michael Crawford, showing elements of the agility and greatness that would see him go on to worldwide stardom. What's most impressive is just how much plot is crammed into the hour running time; there's no slow moments here, just moments of high peril, drama, action, comedy, some shocking plot twists and general childhood camaraderie. If only modern day children's films had the same level of depth; I honestly think the world would be a better place.

CFF At Its Best

[TondaCoolwal · 10/10 · 13 February 2021]

As a Saturday morning cinema fan in the 60s, I was very surprised to realize that I had never seen this film. However, even after 60 years it is the epitome of all the things that made my childhood enjoyable; friendships, broken and restored, communal projects, gangs (in a non-violent sense) and kids doing dangerous things. Health and Safety, and the PC brigade would render it impossible to make this film today. The Battersea Bats, a group of pre-teen boys, have their HQ in a semi-derelict yard on the Thames near Battersea. They carelessly run along a wall ten feet above the river, fight and play in and around railway trucks before knocking a rival gang member into the miry waters, only to have a young Michael Crawford dive in to save him. Elsewhere, the titular soapbox is towed, with occupant, behind an Isetta bubble-car and a man is swung around in the bucket of an excavator! Before I forget; the plot involves the gang building a pedal-powered go-kart to race against their rivals the Victorias. A design is drawn up by Bats' boffin "Four-eyes" Fulton and a wonderful cart constructed. Unfortunately, skullduggery is afoot and the plan is incorporated into the Victorias' soapbox. Worse, the Victorias steal and try to dump the Bats' cart. Being a kids' film you know it will be recovered and the outcome of the final exciting head to head on the racetrack is never in doubt. Upon leaving the cinemas, you would be thinking how marvellous it would be if you built a soapbox like the one in the film. You never did of course, but it was fun dreaming. With regard to Michael Crawford, I worked out that, although his character was supposed to be around 12, he was almost 16 at the time and, in a foretaste of his Frank Spencer antics, he performed the dive into the river himself. And coincidentally "Four-eyes'" sister is named Betty, the name of Frank Spencer's wife in Some Mothers Do Have 'Em. I noticed that some of the boys lived in flats on Deeley Road SW8. If you Google it on Streetview, you will see that the flats still look the same today as they did in the film.

Brilliant!

[nigel_hawkes · 8/10 · 24 January 2022]

I saw this a week after its follow-up "Go Kart Go" (1964)-this earlier film is a darker, grittier version and is a microcosm of post-war Britain and our childhoods then.

Gangs hiding out in old wharf-side cranes, perilous walks on river bank walls, a fight on a coke mound, rough 'n' tumbles on quarry banks...those were the days!

Old Grandpa with his bubble car is a delight (on virtually traffic-free roads).

The main baddie is a cowardly, cheating traitorous rat who's not above breaking into the hero's house and bullying his little (6ish) sister, who afterwards nearly gets killed by a lorry! To cap that, the baddie's father is a horrible, burly thug of a scrap metal dealer who's quite ready to belt any of the youngsters; this is not so fanciful, as I well remember my own upbringing on a S. London estate where a pal's father (ex-Army) would occasionally go berserk and chase us to give us a belting-we never dreamt of telling our fathers as they would probably assume that we were at fault and deal us another one.

The early sequence where the boys are caught hiding on a car breaker's lorry but are allowed to pick the bits they are after is so true-again when we were building "trolleys" we went to a local metal shop and the blokes there kindly drilled some holes in the axles we had found. Most of us only had "downhill" vehicles, steering with our feet, but I remember one chap who built a contraption with a steering wheel and pedals similar to the ones here utilising bike gear rings and chains. Like the boys in this film we spent our time in sheds, garages, "camps", using a few clapped-out tools and our....imagination. I feel sorry for today's youngsters with their plastic electronic gizmos, but it's another time...

If any youngsters happen to ask what life was like in the '50s and '60s, just show them this and some other CFF films like "Skid Kids" and "Salvage Gang"-worth more than any number of lectures by some modern "PC/Diversity" teacher.

CFF so can't go wrong

[plan99 · 8/10 · 26 February 2021]

CFF films are always well worth watching but probably mainly for those born in the 1950s and 1960s as they take us back in time to a black and white childhood possibly seen through rose tinted specs. I had a "bogey" when I was a lad but without the fancy bodywork seen in this film the only bodywork being the body from a large pram, and the wheels.

Soapbox Derby

[johnjazz-28433 · 10/10 · 28 July 2021]

I grew up in Charlton, at the time the film was made. A more simple age, when we made playthings out of things we could scrounge. The Children actor's do a wonderful job in this film. It has happiness, sadness, and pathos. A lovely insight to the past. Beautifully done. Very highly recommended.