Never Take Sweets From a Stranger (Region Free)

(Cyril Frankel, 1960)
Release date: 15 February 2021
Standard Edition Blu-ray

One of Hammer’s most controversial and genuinely adult thrillers, Never Take Sweets from a Stranger is a serious drama that dealt candidly (for the time) with the issue of child abuse.

Deftly handled, the film is a sincere and unsensational treatment of a taboo subject. Avoiding melodrama it addresses the horrors of the real world but remains a compelling and genuinely unsettling work.

INDICATOR STANDARD EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES

• High Definition remaster
  
• Original mono audio
  
• Alternative presentation with US Never Take Candy from a Stranger title sequence
  
• Conspiracy Theories: Inside ‘Never Take Sweets from a Stranger’ (2018, 25 mins): an analysis of the film and its production by Hammer expert Jonathan Rigby, BFI curator Josephine Botting and cultural historian John J Johnston
  
• Hammer’s Women: Gwen Watford (2018, 8 mins): British cinema expert Dr Laura Mayne explores the life and career of the prolific English film, stage and television actress
  
• An Interview with Janina Faye (2018, 15 mins): the British actress recalls her time working with Hammer
  
• An Appreciation by Matthew Holness (2018, 12 mins): the actor, writer, director and Hammer fan reflects on many aspects of the film
  
• The Perfect Horror Chord (2018, 44 mins): a new appreciation of composer Elisabeth Lutyens by David Huckvale, author of Hammer Film Scores and the Musical Avant-Garde
  
• US theatrical trailer
  
• Brian Trenchard-Smith trailer commentary (2013, 4 mins): a short critical appreciation
  
• Image galleries: press and promotional material
  
• New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing