In 2010 , when Optimum Releasing wanted to release the film on DVD in the UK , they made a thorough search for the original 128-minute version , without success . Not even the British Film Institute had one . Optimum released the 119-minute version , running 114 minutes at PAL running speed , instead . The original version is now believed lost . 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 . Tristram Cary 's score was also replaced by another score composed by Les Baxter . Regarding the American distributors changing the title of the film , Fergus McClelland claimed in a BBC Radio interview recorded in June 2010 : " They were very worried that white Americans would think it was about a black boy called Sammy and would n't go to see the film . " Released theatrically in the United States as the headliner of a double bill with '' Crack in the World '' ( 1964 ) '' 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 . " Nominated for a BAFTA Film Award for best British cinematography in 1964 , '' Sammy Going South '' was also entered into the 3rd Moscow International Film Festival
3rd Moscow International Film Festival
3rd Moscow International Film Festival
Sammy Going South