I can’t find a trace of this film, and am hoping someone out there remembers it. The name of the movie was something like Susanna Don’t You Cry and may have featured the song, I don’t recall. I remember seeing it at a Saturday Matinee in 1980 or ‘81 so it was probably shot late ‘70s in Vancouver or Toronto.
The story was about a young girl named Susanna, about 6 to 8 years old. The girl was from an upper class family and had a fight with her parents or was not getting any parental attention, so she wrote them a note and then ran away from home. A gust of wind comes through the window and hides the note under a chair or table.
She’s out on the city streets and two seedy guys come across her. Meanwhile the parents have called the RCMP to find her. The two men see her missing on TV and hatch a plan to get a ransom when they find out her parents have money.
They take really good care of her though and buy her things and give her all the attention she has been needing. I remember a scene at a store, they were buying her what she wanted even though they’re poor and then making sure she takes care of herself and she has a bubble bath. They become like a surrogate family. Now the two guys forget about the money and don’t want to lose her because she has lit up their lives.
Meanwhile the RCMP are closing in and believe the two men have kidnapped her and tell the parents. The parents find the note but they don’t show it to the police probably because it’s easier for them to blame it all on someone else. The police show up and arrest the men and the girl tries to explain they’re innocent but everyone ignores her and her parents take her away. The men tell her not to cry. The ending was the girl is in the back of the car watching them out the window and she is crying as she’s driven away.