The 9-minute short that traumatized generations of American children.
Deals with child molestation prevention. Teaches youngsters safety rules they should follow whenever any unknown person speaks to them. For elementary grades. Sid Davis remade this film over and over and over. Same situations different actors and years.
Direction
Sid Davis's relentless, almost fetishistic restaging of the same nightmare.
Production
Low-budget 1950s aesthetic amplifies the unsettling documentary realism.
Director
Sid Davis
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Sid Davis made five versions: 1950, 1957, 1963, 1973, and 1992—the same cautionary tale spanning Baby Boomers to Millennials.
These films arguably created 'stranger danger' panic itself; kidnapping by strangers was statistically rare, yet Davis's shorts reshaped childhood independence for decades.
US
