The first item I posted about Pet Clark was a scene with her in the classic 1945 movie by Powell and Pressburger, I Know Where I’m Going! But there’s an even earlier screen appearance by Pet as a child actress, in a 20-minute educational film from 1944, called Trouble at Townsend. Petula’s UK fan club has posted the film. A classic this movie certainly is not. The quality of the picture and sound are well below average, and the video player controls are hidden (right-click to pause and resume), but nevertheless it provides a fascinating glimpse into why Petula Clark was a child star in England more than 20 years before most Americans first heard her on the radio, with no preconceptions whatsoever about who she was or what she had done, before bursting onto the American scene with “Downtown.” Click here to watch Petula Clark at age 11, in Trouble at Townsend.
It seems that Firefox uses a Flash player, and IE brings up Media Player. The IE version of the movie has an incorrect aspect ratio.
Smashing! Little Pet puts out the fire (boy, she was so close to those flames, I was wincing!) and saves the day! and gets to sing and dance! Did you see how thick and wild her beautiful hair was, even back then? She probably hated it, but is glad for it now. In her too-few close-ups, you can see she never stops acting. She uses every part of her body to evince emotion! Dare I say, she’s every bit as good as the young Judy Garland? I’m also proud to have a daughter who can play piano as well as Pet did back then, if not better! Can’t sing, though. That still photo of Pet looks quite a bit like Molly when she pouts.