“I’m not denying that the old man got a little fresh with those kids…”

We’re in Canada (again), but, are told, “it could happen anywhere…”

But what is “it”, exactly? Well, stick around and you’ll find out. If you haven’t gleaned anything already from the title. And before you ask, no this isn’t a public information film about the perils of type two diabetes.

We’re with Peter and Sally Carter, some English types who have arrived in the land of variable accents (see: every other British film set in “Canada”) because of Peter’s new job. Peter (Patrick Allen) is the new principal of the local school. Sally (Gwen Watford) is his wife, and that’s it for her (because: 1960). Their nine-year-old daughter Jean (Janina Faye) has been out enjoying an afternoon’s play with a friend, with the only adult supervision coming from an old chap spying on them through binoculars from his bedroom.

Peter and Sally couldn’t be happier with their new life, until Jean does a spectacular mic drop during their after-playtime debriefing. It turns out that her little friend knew where they could get some sweets, and all they had to do was dance around in front of an old man in his bedroom… naked.

This revelation prompts a family meltdown, with dad threatening to kill “the swine” and grandmother (Alison Leggatt) injecting perhaps a little too much practicality with the line “Attempted rape? He didn’t even touch the child!” (come on, grandma, I’m not sure that’s the point). The argument is curtailed, however, when Jean herself loses it, having a nightmare that the “old man” is hiding in her wardrobe.

The Carters decide to press charges, but it turns out that the old man – Clarence Olderberry Sr – is the patriarch of a well-regarded local family. Despite much opposition, they manage to bring the case to trial, but this goes about as well as you’d expect. And is spectacularly grim stuff as Jean gets a grilling on the stand by adults who really should know better.

So Olderberry Sr (Felix Aylmer) is exonerated, and the Carters decide to give up the Canadian life. But on their last day Jean and her little friend are approached again by the old perv, this time with more tragic results.

This early film by Hammer is a spectacular mix of kids-in-peril thriller and courtroom drama, which doesn’t let up at all during its short running time. It’s one of those films that has you throwing things at the screen, as people refuse to believe what’s happening right in front of them. Faye’s performance is the stand-out, as little Jean. Her wide-eyed innocence and all-round likeability mean that she’s at the centre of some properly chilling moments – even before anything happens on-screen. And from the moment Olderberry Sr re-appears after the court case, the tension doesn’t let up until an astonishing final reveal about what has happened.