Kidnapped (1960)

A Major Disappointment

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

As most of you know, I am a direct descendant of Robert Stevenson, the grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson, so I tend to be a bit critical of the movies based on RLS's work, and this is certainly one of the least interesting. Admittedly, I'd give it around a fifty percent mark, but, all told, it's a pretty undistinguished remake if ever there was one. I'll admit the acting is serviceable enough, and I always have a soft spot for Peter Finch, a fine actor who really took his profession very seriously indeed. In fact, far too seriously. It killed him in the end. But that's exactly the problem. You can worry too much about your own performance and put far too much of your power into it. If the script asks you to get angry, well then you really do get angry and pour out so much genuine anger that you can really give yourself a heart attack. That's why I stopped acting. I became the person I was portraying, and if he was angry enough to induce a heart attack, then I was equally angry in my own heart and soul. But it really comes down to the director's responsibility. If he thinks I'm too robust, he can tone me down. If he thinks my interpretation is all wrong, he can tell me how he wants it played. But Finchy was always his own taskmaster – and an extremely hard taskmaster at that! He really threw himself into a role! Well, getting back to this movie, another of my main problems is that twenty-two year-old James MacArthur is too old for the part of David Balfour. Maybe I'm wrong, but I see him as a young boy in his early teens – fifteen or sixteen at the most!

I loved the book, and began watching this Disney treatment quite sceptically, expecting huge changes in the plot and a completely different ending. But to my surprise it follows Stevenson's original text virtually to the letter. A number of events were left out, for reasons of budget and screen time, I suppose. But everything you see in the film is in the book with minimal variations. The Scottish locations are fantastic, the art direction is excellent, the cameos by Currie, Malleson and Laurie are a joy to watch, and the pipe playing contest between Finch and O'Toole is unforgettable. It is obvious that James MacCarthur is in the film only because he was a raising star at Disney's at the time and they wouldn't use an unknown British boy instead. It makes sense, but of course we still would have liked to see a native Scot with a real accent instead of an American painfully trying to sound like a Scot. But he manages to get along anyway. A perfect adventure film for a Saturday/Sunday matinée.

This comes across as a rather cheaply made movie, minimal production values, and that's a shame, because it has a very fine script delivered by very fine actors, chief among them Peter Finch, who delivers Alan Breck Stewart's lines like the Shakespearean actor he was, rolling those r's and turning the prose into poetry. Yes, the ships at sea look like they're in a bathtub, it's true, and the backgrounds, which could have been beautiful, are not, because the color is not that good.But the script is first rate, and so is the acting, and that wins the day.This is a story of male bonding, of a boy who becomes a man by going through trials under the supervision of a man. The sort of thing Kipling did so well a decade later in Captains Courageous - turned into another first-rate movie, if a less faithful one, with Spencer Tracy and Freddie Bartholomew. This is something of the same thing, except that, rather than riding the high seas, the duo wander through the dangers of the Scottish Highlands.It would have benefited from a better score, but still, I strongly recommend it. It is infinitely better than the sad travesty produced for no discernible reason by Masterpiece Theater.

As good as cinema has been in retelling the Robert Louis Stevenson classic. It also happens to be my favourite novel, as it was the first I read (age 11) where the central character, David Balfour speaks with my accent and dialect. Furthermore, as a young man growing up I related to David's character, beliefs and values which reflect those of my own upbringing in a loving secure Lowland Scots Presbyterian (Church of Scotland) family. My biggest criticism is that the character of David as portrayed by James MacArthur spoke with the petulance of a spoiled American kid which did not ring true for a country bred but well educated Lowlander ,who is the recently orphaned son of a Dominie (parish schoolmaster). The late John Laurie played Ebenezer Balfour pretty much as I imagined him from reading the book. Peter Finch made a surprisingly good Alan Breck Stewart, and his speech patterns were faithful both to the book and to a Gaelic speaker speaking in Scots. Many of the incidental characters were well cast and acted as well. The two that stick in mind were the Carter (Tinker) and Jennet Clouston, both characters from whom David seeks direction to the House of Shaws. A great piece of wholesome family entertainment that credits the viewer with intelligence and knowledge of Stevenson's understanding of Scottish History.