The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This frantic domestic melodrama fails both in its strictures on teenagers and as an orgy of mother-love emotionalism. Its thrills are only too patently geared towards sensationalism, while the character of the mother is overdrawn, overplayed and as in her unnecessary burst of violence at the end as anything but sympathetic."
Kine Weekly wrote: "Taut domestic melodrama, with lttle-tough-guy overtones. ... Ruth Dunning does a first-class job as Mrs. Lumsden, Max Butterfield is every inch the rat as Terry, Richard O'Sullivan acts naturally as false hero-worshipper Godfrey, and Gillian Vaughan tantalises as Brenda, the female of the hoodlum species. Its finale is moving and showmanlike, and the low life backgrounds are suitably varied."
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "This little British B-movie is given great strength by the leading performance of veteran TV character actress Ruth Dunning. She stars as a widow trying to keep her young son Richard O'Sullivan on the straight and narrow. However, her older son Max Butterfield is beyond help. Slight and overplayed." ==References==