Clarence and Angel

Clarence, a near-illiterate black teenager, picks up the knack of reading from Angel, a Puerto Rican live wire, during daily sessions together in the school corridor to which both are exiled for misbehaviour. Though lent a superficial 'marginality' by its use of non-professional performers, playground scat songs and dialogue of such authentic (and indecipherable) Harlemese as to give the layman the impression of overhearing rather than hearing it, the film's message - that the resilience of childhood will always win through against the odds - recalls the reactionary softie humanism of a Saroyan. An unassuming little film, nevertheless, touching and droll, and boasting in Cardova (as Angel) a born performer whose flawless timing and diminutive sex appeal suggest that he might grow up to become the American cinema's first Puerto Rican heart-throb.