The Little Kidnappers, billed as The Kidnappers in the UK, is a 1953 British film, directed by Philip Leacock

Philip Leacock

Philip David Charles Leacock was an English television and film director and producer. His brother was documentary filmmaker Richard Leacock.-Career:...

 and written by Neil Paterson

Neil Paterson (writer)

James Edmund Neil Paterson , known as Neil Paterson, was a Scottish screenwriter.- Early life and football career :...

. It was remade as a TV movie in 1990.

Plot

Two young boys live with their stern grandfather in Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...

 after their father's death in the Boer War

Boer War

The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....

. The boys are not allowed to have a dog. Then they find an abandoned baby.
One of cinema's great moments comes with the horror on Duncan Macrae's face when one of the children implores him "Don't eat the babby".

Cast

• Duncan Macrae as Jim MacKenzie
• Jean Anderson
  Jean Anderson
  Jean Anderson was an English actress born in Eastbourne, Sussex. She is best remembered for her television roles as hard-faced matriarch Mary Hammond in the 1970s BBC drama The Brothers and as rebellious aristocrat Lady Jocelyn "Joss" Holbrook in the 1980s Second World War series Tenko .She is...
  
   as Grandma MacKenzie
• Adrienne Corri
  Adrienne Corri
  Adrienne Corri is an actress of Italian parentage.She is probably best known for her role as the rape victim Mrs. Alexander in the 1971 Stanley Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange, and for her appearances as Valerie in Jean Renoir's The River and as Lara's mother in David Lean's Dr. Zhivago...
  
   as Kirsty
• Theodore Bikel
  Theodore Bikel
  Theodore Meir Bikel is a character actor, folk singer and musician. He made his film debut in The African Queen and was nominated for an Academy award for his supporting role as Sheriff Max Muller in The Defiant Ones ....
  
   as Dr. Willem Bloem
• Jon Whiteley
  Jon Whiteley
  Jon Whiteley was a child actor in films.Whiteley appeared in five films during his brief career, and it was for the second of these, The Little Kidnappers that he, along with co-star Vincent Winter, was awarded an Academy Juvenile Award for this film...
  
   as Harry, Jim's grandson
• Vincent Winter
  Vincent Winter
  Vincent Winter was a Scottish film actor who was successful as a child actor.-Career:Winter was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, and made his first film appearance at the age of six in The Little Kidnappers winning, along with his co-star Jon Whiteley, an Academy Juvenile Award...
  
   as Davy, another grandson
• Francis de Wolff
  Francis de Wolff
  Francis de Wolff was an English character actor. Large, bearded, and beetle-browed, he was often cast as villains in both film and television....
  
   as Jan Hooft Sr.
• James Sutherland as Arron McNab

Awards

Both Whitely and Winter were presented with Honorary Juvenile Acting Oscars

Academy Juvenile Award

The Academy Juvenile Award, also known as the Juvenile Oscar, was a Special Honorary Academy Award bestowed at the discretion of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to specifically recognize juvenile performers under the age of eighteen for their "outstanding...

 for their performances. In addition, the film was nominated for 3 BAFTA Film Awards and was entered into the 1954 Cannes Film Festival

1954 Cannes Film Festival

-Jury:*Jean Cocteau *Jean Aurenche *André Bazin *Luis Buñuel*Henri Calef *Guy Desson *Philippe Erlanger *Michel Fourre-Cormeray *Jacques-Pierre Frogerais...

.