Watch John and Julie For Free

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is a production which has the imprint of one of my favourite directors,John Baxter,albeit as executive producer.He had a great belief in the common touch and this shows itself in the scenes in Trafalgar Square.This does not compensate for the cringe factor of this production..The child actors are truly awful.The script is paper thin.Basically it is there to support the use of the Coronation footage.The music featuring the trumpet of Eddie Calvert will drive anyone round the bend.Every time there is an emotional moment up he blows.The only point of interest is seeing what a spruced up London was like in 1953.My parents took me up to the West End to look at the decorations.

John and Julie is written directed by William Fairchild. It stars Colin Gibson, Lesley Dudley, Noelle Middleton, Moira Lister, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Sid James and Megs Jenkins. Out of Beaconsfield Studios, film is shot in Eastman Color with music by Philip Green (trumpet solo's Eddie Calvert) and cinematography by Arthur Grant.John (Gibson) and Julie (Dudley), two young children in 1953, set off on their own from Dorset to see The Queen's Coronation in London....Utterly charming picture full of youthful bluster and eccentric adults. Film is very much of its time, it harks back to a time when kids were safe on the streets, people were only too glad to help and you could drink water from the local stream! In essence it's a road movie, one that is powered by two youngsters who by hook or by crook, want to see the Queen get crowned. Story shows how these two young kiddies use initiative and naivety to get to their destination, how they affect everyone who comes into contact with them, and finally how such an historical event brought about a joy and community spirit that is sadly all too lacking in today's modern British society. All of which is deftly flecked by Eddie Calvert's beautiful trumpet.God bless her!Is it contrived? And do you have to be a fan of the British Royals to get the most out of it? Not at all. Yes you need a modicum of disbelief suspension to accept that the kids could make it all that way without getting nabbed by the police, the latter of which hardly come off as sharp coppers here, but Fairchild is all about youthful determination and how young cherubs can often beguile us adults. Fairchild also knits it all together with ease, even managing to unobtrusively insert actual footage of the Coronation parade into the joyous climax. The child actors are thankfully, very likable, especially Dudley who is simply adorable, and the cast is a roll call of British film treasures. Stand outs are Sid James at his grumpy best as John's father, Hyde-White is classy and correct, Jenkins as usual delivers a memorable female touch and Lister scores high as a tart with a heart. Peter Sellers fans should note he has only a small role, that of a good old British Bobby.Of its time for sure, but that is a good thing here. A true spirit lifting film and a beacon of unadulterated joy for the child in all of us. 8/10

"The Man with the Golden Trumpet" they called Eddie Calvert who came up through the Brass bands of Northern England to headline at Variety theatres throughout the U.K and what remained of the Empire.His big hits like "Oh mein Papa","Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White" and "John and Julie" coincided - rather like the Coronation - with the Empire's last gleaming.African chiefs in colourful robes smiled unthreateningly,Queen Salote of Tonga disdained the use of an umbrella during the procession,Young Elizabethans all over the country crowded round the two or three Television sets per street and peered at their 12" or 14" screens aware that in a few days time they would have to be writing an essay "What I did on Coronation Day". For John and Julie that would have proved a mammoth task. Coming up to London to see the procession,they become separated from their parents and meet an Ealingesque cross - section of the population before being restored to the bosom of their Enid Blyton - like family. There is a sunny assumption that every adult is not a potential paedophile but a helpful protective presence that it would take a naive filmmaker to replicate today."John and Julie"'s touching innocence is one of its attractions in an infinitely more hostile world. Sumptuously coloured,it evokes the world of "Eagle",,"Spangles" "Dollar" bubblegum,"Muffin the Mule" and "Mr Turnip",all of whom John and Julie would have been aware of. How fortunate they were to have been growing up in such exciting times. In retrospect the Coronation can be seen as the last true evocation of the spirit of the Blitz where class divisions were laid aside,old enmities put on hold and most of Britain spoke with one voice of optimism and hope fuelled by respect for the monarchy in the person of the bright,fresh young queen who represented so many hopes and dreams. Just eight years after the end of the second world war the New Elizabethans gave notice that the country was under new management after years of austerity and sacrifice."John and Julie" personifies that optimism in its purest form.

This was shown in America in the early seventies on the short lived CBS Children's Film Festival, which of course was hosted by Kukla, Fran & Ollie, the trio in which Fran was a human being, but Kukla the clown and Ollie the dragon were hand puppets operated by Burr Tillstrom. I had no idea this program was in color for starters, and now to see it nearly 30 years later, it really is an absolute escapist delight. Forget all your troubles in life and focus on two children wanting to see her majesty's coronation. Peter Sellers (nearly unrecognizeable as that cop), Sidney James (whom I just discovered earlier this year in the Carry On movies), and above all others, Wilfred Hyde White, always sensational to listen to.There is nothing I can say about the music. It carries the movie, enters at just the right moments.The coronation as well was brilliant. For her majesty and Winston Churchill's brief appearances? Certainly, but the stars were the British subjects themselves, shown throughout the movie aiding John and Julie in their quest to get to London as well, now gathered along the procession to cheer for the queen. These were the stars, as the movie triumphantly noted at the very end. And now to see it well half a century after the events, three decades after I was first exposed to the story, what more is there to say?God save the queen.