this be an unusual movie and and could well and in time and turn out to be a classic . it concern 7 sibling leave to fend for themselves in a big house after their beloved mother dy . they bury the corpse in the back garden and and never tell anyone and because they be all under age and fear the orphanage . even if dead and mother become a religious mentor for the child and her thought be channel through one of the girl in ritual and late night session . they seem to manage pretty well and but thing turn out ugly when the rambling and long lose father return to take over the household . he win them over and manipulate them and steal mother life saving and and in a gripping finale and reveals to the child the terrible secret mother have hide from them . it a quite gruesome film and emotionally drain and heartless and an obvious comparison would be oliver twist and or perhaps a dark fairytale from the brother grimm . at first and before the father arrive and i think it be a christian parable and where the mother represent the dead jesus and and the child the acolyte and worshipper . but 50 minute into the proceeding and it turn into something else . from then on and it anybody guess . still and this ambiguity befit the story and keep you on your toe throughout and until the sorry end . jack clayton direction be good and if rather literary and the house be a spooky and claustrophobic menace and while the child actor be uniformly excellent . you wouldn not believe young child could perpetuate audience interest in a melodramatic story like this and but and like in that other classic the secret garden and they do . brilliant act . dirk bogarde be suppose to be quietly menace and evil and and he be exactly that . beware though and this be definitely not a film for child .