{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2016}} {{Use British English|date=June 2016}} {{Infobox film | name = The Wonder Kid | image = File:The Wonder Kid.jpg | caption = | director = Karl Hartl | producer = Karl Hartl | writer = Gene Markey <br> Karl Hartl | editing = Reginald Beck | starring = Bobby Henrey<br />Elwyn Brook-Jones<br />Muriel Aked<br />Oskar Werner | cinematography = Günther Anders<br />Robert Krasker | music = Willy Schmidt-Gentner | studio = London Films | distributor = British Lion Films | released = {{Film date|df=y|1952|05|26}} | runtime = 85 minutes | country = United Kingdom | language = English | gross = £79,912 (UK)<ref>Vincent Porter, 'The Robert Clark Account', ''Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television'', Vol 20 No 4, 2000 p498</ref> }} '''''The Wonder Kid''''' (also known as '''''Wonder Boy''''' and '''''Wonder Child''''') is a 1952 British drama film directed by Karl Hartl and starring Bobby Henrey, Elwyn Brook-Jones and Oskar Werner.<ref name="BFIsearch">{{Cite web |title=The Wonder Kid |url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150056139 |access-date=18 October 2025 |website=British Film Institute Collections Search}}</ref> It was written by Gene Markey and Hartl.
==Plot== Sebastian Giro is a ten-year-old French boy and child musical prodigy found in an orphanage by Mr Gorik who exploits the youngster’s talent as a classical pianist and turns him into an international celebrity. He even tells everyone that the boy is only seven years old to make the boy wonder’s talent seem all the more remarkable.
But Gorik is also a crook who embezzles the takings so that he has almost all the money and Sebastian gets hardly any. Gorik won’t allow Sebastian to enjoy the simple pleasures of being a little boy, like playing with other boys or even reading comic books, because, when Sebastian is not performing, Gorik is not making any money out of him. He works the over tired boy like a slave who must continually practice on the piano.
Sebastian’s elderly English governess, Miss Frisbie is very concerned about the boy and confronts Gorik about his crooked activities. But he dismisses her from her post. Miss Frisbie then pays a gang of crooks to "kidnap" Sebastian and take him to stay in a remote lodge in the Austrian Tyrol, where the boy has never been so free and happy and Gorik will not get him back until he pays a huge ransom which is, in effect, all the money he has stolen from the boy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=BFI {{!}} Film & TV Database {{!}} The Wonder Kid (1951) |url=http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/58566 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090113212316/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/58566 |archive-date=2009-01-13 |access-date=2025-10-18 |website=ftvdb.bfi.org.uk |language=en}}</ref>
==Cast== * Bobby Henrey as Sebastian Giro * Elwyn Brook-Jones as Mr. Gorik * Muriel Aked as Miss Frisbie * Oskar Werner as Rudi * Robert Shackleton as Rocks Cooley * Christa Winter as Anni * Sebastian Cabot as Pizzo * Klaus Birsch as Nik * Paul Hardtmuth as Professor Bindl * June Elvin as Miss Kirsch
== Production == ''The Wonder Kid'' was filmed on location in Austria and at Isleworth Studios in England in late 1949 and early 1950, but not released until 1952.{{Citation needed|date=October 2025}} The film's sets were designed by the art directors Joseph Bato and Werner Schlichting.
== Reception == ''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' wrote: "The story is too simple for the framework of the film, and the Austrian director never appears to have a firm grip on his own screenplay. The interlude in the chateau where Sebastian is learning to throw a ball, swim and play with a dog is incredibly drawn out, the point of the story is obscured and the climax so long delayed that one cares little for his ultimate fate. His character – that of an effeminate, precocious little prig – calls for little sympathy, however, and Bobby Henrey's playing of the part is much inferior to his performance in ''The Fallen Idol''. The other players have few chances with their novelettish, one sided characters. Some of the photography is excellent, but too reminiscent of a travelogue. The film, incidentally, has been made in two versions, English and German."<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1 January 1951 |title=The Wonder Kid |volume=18 |issue=204 |pages=363 |id={{ProQuest|1305815568}} |journal=The Monthly Film Bulletin}}</ref>
''Kine Weekly'' wrote: "The picture is nothing like ''The Fallen Idol'', but even so it is a challenge to Bobby Henrey, who distinguished himself in that dazzling opus. Unfortunately for the lad, director-cum-author Karl Hartl is no Carol Reed nor Graham Greene. Innocuous hue and cry, staged in the Austrian Tyrol, the film has little to support it apart from its scenic splendour."<ref>{{Cite journal |date=4 October 1951 |title=The Wonder Kid |volume=415 |issue=2310 |pages=25 |id={{ProQuest|2826311817}} |journal=Kine Weekly}}</ref>
''Picturegoer'' wrote: "Silly tale about a famous child pianist who is handed to a gang of international crooks by his governess because his manager is cheating him of the money he earns. As virtuoso Sebastian Giro, Bobby Henrey retains some of his ''Fallen Idol'' promise – except when he plays the piano; in these sequences his expression suggests he is playing nothing more musical than trains. His emotional Continental manager (Elwyn Brook-Jones) can't, apparently, make up his mind whether he's in the concert world or burlesque business. Muriel Aked, as the governess, tries hard with some inane lines. However, Robert Shackleton, the kindhearted American who joins the gang after leaving America in a hurry, is first rate."<ref>{{Cite journal |date=24 May 1952 |title=The Wonder Kid |volume=23 |issue= |pages=17 |id={{ProQuest|1705152076}} |journal=Picturegoer}}</ref>
''Picture Show'' wrote: "Fresh, wholesome, comedy drama."<ref>{{Cite journal |date=24 May 1952 |title=The Wonder Kid |volume=58 |issue=1521 |pages=10 |id={{ProQuest|1880306168}} |journal=Picture Show}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb title|0043146}}
{{Karl Hartl}} {{Alexander Korda}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wonder Kid}} Category:1952 films Category:Austrian comedy films Category:English-language Austrian films Category:Films directed by Karl Hartl Category:Films about orphans Category:Films about pianos and pianists Category:Films about child abduction Category:Films shot in Austria Category:Films set in Austria Category:British black-and-white films Category:Films shot at Isleworth Studios Category:British comedy films Category:1952 comedy films Category:1952 English-language films Category:1952 British films Category:Films scored by Willy Schmidt-Gentner Category:English-language comedy films Category:English-language comedy-drama films Category:1952 Austrian films