film title

[ria66]

I'm trying to find the title of a film I watched when was young, I think i must have been about 8 at the time so it would have been in the 70's. The film is about a family of children whose mother dies. The children decide not to tell anyone about ti and turn the garden shed into a shrine. Two scenes i remember most are the children forging the signiture on the child allowence book so they could get some money and the children hitting the mothers boyfriend over the head with a poker and killing him. Sounds a pretty gruesome film I know, but it has bugged me for years wondering what it was called. I wasn't allowed to watch the whole film and as I was so young i don't even know who any of the actors where. Does it ring any bells anyone?

[gareth1976]

One film springs to mind, but it was made much later than the 70's. It's called The Cement Garden, (based on the book of the same name.) I don't know if this is the one you are thinking of, but the mother does die, and the children have to look after themselves...

[swan04]

Did this film also have a scene where the eldest daughter (who has now become the "matriarch") orders punishment for one of the others by feverishly rocking in a rocking chair (and the punishment is the child getting a crude haircut)??? That scene has stayed in my memories since the 70s but I can't remember what film it was. Certainly British, though...

[Rubrick]

The film you are thinking of is "Our mother's house" which starred Dirk Bogarde and Mark Lester one year before he appeared as Oliver Twist in the film Oliver! Our Mother's house was made in 1967 and was on late on BBC1 in late July/early August this year. They turn the shed into a shrine because that's where they bury their mother.