As many of you now know, I'm always on the lookout not only for strange, little-known cryptids (mystery animals) in my longstanding career as a cryptozoological investigator and author but also for strange, little-known films in my equally longstanding enthusiasm for all matters movie-related – and on Saturday morning, 21 May 2022, I happened to discover a fascinating example of the two in one! For that was when the retro-specialising UK TV channel Talking Pictures screened an enchanting yet nowadays all-but-forgotten Children's Film Foundation-associated rarity entitled Mr Horatio Knibbles.
Directed by Robert Hird, with a screenplay by Peter Blackmore (from an original story by Wally Bosco), produced by Anvil Film & Recording Group for the Children's Film Foundation (aka CFF, a non-profit UK organization that produced or sponsored short movies for children from the late 1940s to the mid-1980s), and released in 1970 (or 1971 – sources differ), Mr Horatio Knibbles is a thoroughly delightful, whimsical fantasy movie. Its title character (played by Anthony Sheppard) happens to be an avuncular 6-ft-tall ever-hungry white rabbit (which may explain why his surname is pronounced 'Nibbles'). He is always dressed very nattily in jacket, waistcoat, watch chain, trousers, and top hat (and is therefore reminiscent of portrayals of the White Rabbit in various live-action Alice in Wonderland movies). However, he is invisible and inaudible to everyone except for a lonely young girl named Mary Bunting (Lesley Roach), who loves rabbits and desperately wants a pet one for her rapidly-approaching birthday, but is steadfastly refused by her kindly yet rabbit-averse parents (Bernard Horsfall and Jane Jordan Rogers).
After Mr Knibbles appears to a sad Mary, they have all sorts of amusing, innocent adventures together in the nearby woods where Mr Knibbles lives that cheer her up immensely, but thoroughly baffle and bemuse her disbelieving parents and in particular her somewhat bullish brother Tom (Gary Smith), who cannot see her new friend. Inevitably, therefore, they assume that Mary is either letting her imagination run riot or is telling them outright fibs.
Mary even claims that she has written to Mr Knibbles, addressing her letter to him at Rhododendron Manor, The Woods, Local, and posting it in a hollow tree log where a squirrel collects the mail each day at 3 pm sharp (provided of course that the postage has been paid for in nuts!). So her father decides to put an end to this nonsense by concealing himself near to said tree log just before 3 pm, totally confident that the highly unlikely scenario alleged by Mary will not take place – only to be thoroughly startled, however, when a squirrel does indeed appear, pulls out a letter from the log, and passes it to a bird who flies off with it!
Mary's birthday arrives, and she invites Mr Knibbles to her party. Due, however, in no small way by a small girl named Nancy (Rachel Brennock) who is Mary's somewhat hysterical friend, given to unnerving ear-piercing shrieking like a banshee at the slightest provocation (and especially so after Mr Knibbles agrees to become visible for her as well as Mary), he decides to take shelter for a while inside an empty water barrel, where he goes to sleep – only for the water barrel to be sealed and taken away as it had been leaking. Mary and her friend finally succeed in reclaiming it (assisted hilariously by PC Briggs (Fred Evans), a somewhat simple but good-hearted policeman, who is actually able to see Mr Knibbles due to his own love for rabbits), but when Mary tells her father that it contains her giant furry friend he angrily and dismissively declares that it is empty.
In despair, Mary calls out to Mr Knibbles inside the barrel, pleading with him to promise to appear to everyone present if the barrel is opened, which Mr Knibbles readily agrees to do. Although he cannot hear Mr Knibbles's words, Mary's father reluctantly decides to open it, to confirm once and for all to Mary and all of her birthday party guests there that Mr Knibbles is just a figment of her imagination – only of course for a now-visible, audible Mr Knibbles to duly if delicately extricate himself from the barrel (he is rather rotund!), amazing his human audience.
All ends well, with Mr Knibbles giving Mary a very special birthday present – a fluffy white pet rabbit (of normal size, thankfully!) – before bidding her a fond farewell for the time being, revealing that he is going off on holiday to Australia, but promising to visit her again when he returns home.
Needless to say, the premise of Mr Horatio Knibbles readily recalls Mary Chase's classic 1944 play Harvey (and to a much lesser extent Donnie Darko!) plus the three subsequent movies based upon it (the most famous of which is the first one, starring James Stewart and released in 1950). By being aimed at children, however, and produced over 50 years ago, it is much more light-hearted, gentle, and thoroughly endearing, yet without being cloy or twee (it is also a visual treat, filmed in vibrant colours and beautiful settings).
Indeed, for some years after its release in 1971, Mr Horatio Knibbles proved very popular with children of all ages (not to mention, I strongly suspect, a fair few adults too!), and was often shown on TV here in the UK, especially at Christmas time. However, because it features generally polite, largely well-behaved, quintessentially middle-class English children, and is set in the kind of idyllic early 1970s rural England that probably never truly existed except in movies like this one, it may well be deemed dated and even un-PC by various modern-day factions nowadays, thereby explaining why such a lovely little movie (only an hour long) has unjustly sunk into almost total obscurity.
Consequently, although quite some time ago I'd watched a few excerpts from it on YouTube, I never expected to view Mr Horatio Knibbles in its entirety, so I was very pleased indeed to catch it a couple of days ago on Talking Pictures, where I hope that it will be regularly repeated hereafter. After going AWOL from terrestrial TV for far too long, it is high time that this magical film's long-eared, mangelwurzel-munching star is introduced to new and future generations of youngsters – given such an opportunity, they will, I'm sure, be just as enthralled by Mr Knibbles as their parents and grandparents were, all those many years ago.
If you'd like to view some excerpts from Mr Horatio Knibbles currently present on YouTube, be sure to click here to view its opening scene, here to view its closing scene, plus here, and here. Moreover, it is now available to purchase in DVD format as part of a CFF nine-movie bumper DVD box set released by the British Film Institute (BFI).
To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
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