Raising a Riot

Plot summary

Commander Peter Kent of the Royal Navy and his wife May have three children, ranging form five to eleven years: Peter, Anne and Fusty. Kent comes home after three years abroad with no idea how to handle the children. When Mary has to fly to Canada, Peter takes his children to his father's new country home, which turns out to be a windmill. They end up clashing with an American family in the neighbourhood.

Cast

Production

The film was based on a book by American writer Alfred Toombs. The book was based on Toombs' real life experience of having to look after his children after having been away from them at war for three years.

One of the children is an uncredited Caroline John, who would later play Liz Shaw in Doctor Who.

Box office

The film was the eighth most popular movie at the British box office in 1955.

According to the National Film Finance Corporation, the film made a comfortable profit.

Critical

The New York Times wrote, "Withal, it makes agreeable entertainment. Mr. More is a comical chap, particularly when he has a dog to cope with, as he had in the memorable Genevieve...Raising a Riot is an amiable little film"; while more recently, the Radio Times called it "an inconsequential, one-joke comedy, kept moving by the polished More, but old-fashioned and rather flat"; and Allmovie described how the film "goes off on several directions, many of them hilarious: some of the best scenes involve the kids' ongoing feud with a bunch of American children."