Sammy Going South (retitled A Boy Ten Feet Tall for its later US release) is a 1963 British adventure film directed by Alexander Mackendrick, photographed by Erwin Hillier and starring Edward G. Robinson, Fergus McClelland and Constance Cummings.

When she wants to return him to Port Said, Sammy runs off and encounters a gruff old hunter/diamond smuggler, Cocky Wainwright, whose life is subsequently saved by the boy.

[1] Fergus McClelland was an eleven years old pupil at Holland Park Comprehensive School in London in March 1962 when he was chosen from hundreds of other boys to play Sammy.

In an interview on the DVD release of the film McClelland believed he won the role when he was seen insisting on combing his own hair that the casting director thought was self-reliance in character with Sammy.

Filming began in Africa in May 1962 in CinemaScope and Eastman Colour and finished at Shepperton Studios in England in November of that year (Fergus McClelland celebrated his 12th birthday on the set in September 1962).

Some long shots were done clandestinely by a second unit in Egypt, with an Arab boy dressed as Sammy, and the negative was later smuggled out of the country.

Executive producer Sir Michael Balcon saw the story as a warm tale of an innocent 10-year-old boy’s triumph over adversity, set against the scenery of the African continent which would be shown to best advantage by CinemaScope and Eastman Colour.

Originally the finished film came in at over three hours and two film editors were brought in by Balcon to trim it considerably to a more manageable 129 minutes, removing, among other scenes, shots of the Syrian peddler lusting after Sammy (oddly enough, a small part of these censored scenes apparently made it to the release version and can be seen on the present DVD).

When the film was released in the United States it was retitled A Boy Ten Feet Tall and was cut by 40 minutes so that it would fit on a double bill.

Released theatrically in the United States as the headliner of a double bill with Crack in the World, Sammy Going South was reviewed by Howard Thompson for The New York Times.

He commented: "... "Boy" is above average, in detailing the 2,000-mile trek of a war orphan during the Suez crisis in 1956, from Port Said to Durban, South Africa.

The picture aims to convey the emotional growth of the battered youngster, played by 10-year-old Fergus McClelland, in his encounters with toughening, adult relationships.

Most fortunately indeed, at about midpoint, that wonderful old actor Edward G. Robinson saunters into view as a grizzled, warm-hearted diamond smuggler, and gives the picture its real substance.