On March 5, filmmaker and photographer Morris Engel, 86, whose 1953 cinéma vérité drama Little Fugitive received an Oscar nomination for Best Motion Picture Story, died of cancer in New York City.
Shot in documentary style (clearly influenced by the work of neo-realist filmmakers in Italy) with a cast of unknowns, Little Fugitive is the story of a six-year-old boy (Richie Andrusco) who runs away from home because he mistakenly believes he has killed his brother. He ends up lost among the sites and sounds of Coney Island.
The Brooklyn-born Engel, a professional still photographer, co-directed the film with Ray Ashley and fellow photographer Ruth Orkin from their own original story.
Little Fugitive's no-frills, no-plot, no-stars approach inspired American independent directors, and even films made overseas such as Albert Lamorisse's The Red Balloon (1956) and François Truffaut's The 400 Blows (1959). Its influence can be felt in films as recent as Jafar Panahi's 1995 Iranian drama The White Balloon.
Engel directed only two more movies after Little Fugitive: Lovers and Lollipops (1956) and Weddings and Babies (1958), the only one of his films that boasted an actual movie star, Viveca Lindfors.
Truffaut once (in hyperbolic fashion) stated that "our French New Wave would never have come into being if it hadn't been for Little Fugitive."
Engel countered that the claim was "ridiculous — but I am not going to argue."