Momma Don't Allow is a celebration by Tony Richardson and Karel Reisz of the free spirit of youth - particularly London's working class youth in the 1950s.
Tony Richardson/Karel Reisz
Walter Lassally
COMMENTMomma Don't Allow is a celebration by Tony Richardson and Karel Reisz of the free spirit of youth - particularly London's working class youth. The story was contrived to contrast the difference between 'Teddy Boys' and 'Toffs', with the sub-plot being that the 'Teds' were not the flick-knife wielding thugs they were made out to be in the press. The focus of the film is Wood Green jazz-club where Chris Barber, the maestro of 'trad' or 'stomp' jazz, is playing. In the mid-fifties trad jazz was the risqué underground sound of rebellion. Richardson and Reisz used it and its dive-bar image to drive the film along as the Teds see-off the late arrival of the Toffs by being better at socializing, drinking and dancing. The film was paid for by the BFI Experimental Film Fund and according the BFI records cost £425. Momma Don't Allow was Richardson's and Reisz's first contribution to the 'Free Cinema' movement.
