Kidnapped (1971)

Lack of good storyline.

Absolutely Fantastic

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

One gets a fuller and more rounded picture of the times that the famous Robert Louis Stevenson novel Kidnapped is set in with this version of Kidnapped. Not only is the famous Stevenson novel taken to David Balfour's return and vindication, but we go a bit farther with the story based on Stevenson's successor novel Catriona and we get the Kidnapped story firmly entrenched in the times it happened.Those times being the days after the Battle Of Culloden where the Scottish people chose between the returning French speaking Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Hanover monarchy of George II in 1745. At Culloden the Stuart forces were destroyed and the Hanoverians firmly in control after that. Those were bad times to be a Highlander and a supporter of the Stuarts.Lawrence Douglas plays young David Balfour and Michael Caine is Alan Breck his friend and rescuer during the kidnapping of young Balfour by Captain Jack Hawkins at the behest of Balfour's uncle Donald Pleasance.I'll not say more as the story of Kidnapped is well known. As for the continuing material from Catriona, the differences between Alan Breck and David Balfour are brought out. Lawrence Douglas is a Hanoverian supporter and Breck a soldier in the army of Prince Charles. However Douglas is an honest young man and goes to bat for a Stuart accused of a crime he did not commit. That sets the rival Campbell clan against him and puts Advocate General Trevor Howard in a delicate position.Howard's character is not in the first novel and he's a decent man in an impossible political position. It's Alan Breck however who sets things right in the end for all concerned.Previous versions with Warner Baxter and Freddie Bartholomew and Peter Finch and James MacArthur only concentrated on the Kidnapped story. The Finch/MacArthur version was from Disney and marketed for kids. This film is more adult and firmly set in the politics of the time with a good ensemble cast. I'd check this out especially if I liked the work of Robert Louis Stevenson.

This adventure film from 1971 is a highly credible cinematic adaptation. The pacing is economical but I was most impressed by some of the visual relationships and props. For example, the dark-brown hues in Captain Hoseason's ship's cabin. Also in one early scene at the curmudgeonly Uncle Ebeneezer's bleak House of Shaws when young David is introduced to Captain Hoseason and is subsequently kidnapped, the morning sun-light shining on the door in the background gives the surface of the door a pure silver effect which seems profoundly metaphysical. I admired the eighteenth-century globes and furnishings in the Lord Advocate's office. Indeed the Lord Advocate - played with flair by Trevor Howard, is very much a figure from the Scottish Enlightenment. Michael Caine in one of his most committed performances plays the character of Jacobite soldier of fortune, Alan Breck Stuart: he sports green, blue and grey tartan with a silver brooch embossed with an amber gem. The fight scene in the ship's cabin is a bravura set-piece.

I love this film in spite of its alleged inaccuracies in dress, accent and history. It was after all based on a novel not a history. It is certainly better than the Disney version with Peter Finch. I love the memorable set pieces such as the fight between Alan and David and the duel between Duncansby and David who 'doesn't know the back end of a sword from its front' and who won't 'play at the cards' with Freddie Jones, due to his promise to his father. The locations were good with little studio work like the Disney version. The over the top Donald Pleasance and Freddie Jones are wonderful but so are all the rest. I especially liked the nervous dithering lawyer played by Gordon Jackson. Micheal Caine was at his peak so must have been a coup for the producers who were hardly likely to make him a minor character. As previously stated, Lawrence Douglas was suitably downtrodden and dowdy. My only question is why he responded to Duncansby's insult so swiftly and violently. As he is portrayed as thoughtful and principled I would have at least thought he would have tried to elicit an apology by reason rather that demanding immediate satisfaction in the knowledge of certain death. I think the only better version was the serialised version with David McCallum as Alan Breck but as a serial had much greater time to give an in depth portrayal.

Mr Donald Pleasance - clearly basing his performance on Spike Milligan's interpretations of The Great McGonagall - is given a rare opportunity to air his "Scottish" accent.So,unfortunately,are Mr Freddie Jones,Mr Jack Watson,Mr Jack Hawkins and Sir Michael Caine,who,in "Kidnapped"is forced to wear clothes a P.G. Wodehouse bookmaker would regard as de trop. As a Scotsman raised in England I have no personal agenda here.Everybody hates the English - I accept that - it comes with the badge as it were. Mr Delbert Mann is as entitled as the next person to have a pop,much as fellow American Mr Mel Gibson did many years later,but he was taking the p*ss a bit using big name English actors to do it. It is a fact universally acknowledged that anything more subtle than the "See you Jimmy!" brand of Scottish dialect is beyond all but the finest mimics.Here,that beautiful treasure - house is raped,plundered then trampled over in favour of a generic accent like a third - rate touring company fumbling their way through "The Scottish Play" on a wet Tuesday night in Hull.An honourable exception is Mr Trevor Howard as the Advocate - General,a splendid exposition of the Upper - Class Scotsman,at home neither with the English nor his own countrymen. Mr Caine decides on a "Gorblimey Guv'nor - the noo" style of speech that never works for me.At least Mr Jones gives it the whole eye - rolling Robert Newton routine,no half - measures there. The exterior sequences are competent if not particularly exciting and there is a nice sense of the rugged countryside at times,but much of the movie is static,almost stagey in nature.The fight in the ship's cabin is clumsily handled and I feared some of the scenery was actually going to collapse under the weight of the flying bodies. Mr Robert Louis Stephenson himself once wrote..."Sometimes it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive" - words to consider if you are to avoid disappointment after deciding to watch this version of "Kidnapped"