Kidnapped (1938)

So much average

People are voting emotionally.

Memorable, crazy movie

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.

Freddie Bartholemew is young David Balfour in this Robert Louis Stevenson story. He's at school, when he's told his father has died. He never really knew him too well and was never that close, so he wasn't too broken up, but his world does change dramatically because a letter (left by his father) requests him to go to his Uncle Ebenezer. David finds him living in a huge albeit neglected and run down castle. David learns real quick not to trust him and gets out of there, only to be tricked on to a ship bound for who knows where. David does run into an outlaw accused of murder, played by Warner Baxter, but his questionable allegiances to his king and country are what incite the people and the law against him. Add to this a young lass played by Arleen Whelan who is supposedly going to be with her fiancé, but will she fall in love with Warner instead, who is trying to get her out of the country to him? Will David be rescued and find a place to call home? With a bevy of recognizable faces and good actors, the story-telling of Stevenson, the director's flair and pace, and the presence of the Scottish moors and landscapes, this was one of the best adventures of the 1930s that I've seen in a long time. It may be one of the best adventure films you've never heard of, and can you believe there's no Errol Flynn in sight! Kudos to a job well done to all involved and in keeping the spirit of Stevenson alive!

In 1747 Scotland, rebellious Warner Baxter (as Alan Breck) leads his men against British rule and becomes an outlawed traitor. Meanwhile, young teenager Freddie Bartholomew (a David Balfour) is at school when he learns his long-absent father has died and left him a letter to deliver to wealthy uncle Miles Mander (as Ebenezer Balfour). On the way to his castle, young Bartholomew witnesses an assassination. Because he knows the assassin's identity, Bartholomew is kidnapped by Mr. Baxter. For another reason, Bartholomew is pursued by Mr. Mander. Danger and adventure continue in earnest...Based on the classic story by Robert Louis Stevenson, but significantly altered to play up Baxter's character and his romance with pretty newcomer Arleen Whelan (as Jean MacDonald). Although it's not the first or last time an older star was paired with a much younger mate, it appears ill-fitting here. The script helps, a least, by acknowledging Ms. Whelan's youthful appearance, when she pretends to be Bartholomew's mother. Otherwise, this is an excellently produced adventure story. The scenes involving Bartholomew and Mander are especially well staged. "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" will have you humming.******* Kidnapped, The Adventures of David Balfour (5/27/38) Alfred L. Werker ~ Freddie Bartholomew, Warner Baxter, Arleen Whelan, Miles Mander

If you're a Robert Louis Stevenson purist you will probably not find this version of Kidnapped to your liking. I've not seen yet the version with Roddy McDowall from 1948, but the Disney version with James MacArthur and Peter Finch sticks far closer to what Stevenson wrote.Not that Freddie Bartholomew is bad as young Balfour the heir who gets hijacked rather than kidnapped, a scheme to deprive him of a Scottish title by his miserly uncle played by Miles Mander. In the book and in the Disney film, Balfour's story is the plot of the film. In this version we get far more of Scottish politics as they were in 1747.The character of Balfour's grownup savior Alan Breck is built up and a whole plot involving a romance with a Scottish lass played by Arleen Whelan is given equal time with the Balfour predicament. Warner Baxter is cast as Alan Breck and this must have only happened because Darryl Zanuck had Tyrone Power and Don Ameche working on other projects. Power would really have brought a verve to the role that Baxter just didn't have. Not unlike The Prince And The Pauper where Errol Flynn is the dashing Miles Hendon saving the young king Edward VI. And in that film Flynn while top billed did not have his character built up to take away from the main story.Kidnapped is not a bad film, but the Disney version is much better.

Fast, efficient, inaccurate adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel of a young boy (Bartholemew) swept up in the Scottish rebellion against the King's tax collectors.When you get one of these 1930s black-and-white, no-nonsense stories of famous novels or famous men from a studio like 20th-Century Fox, you get a respectable and not-very-challenging studio product. These are all professional and commercial products. The guys behind and in front of the camera knew their business. The sets are evocatively dressed. Rainy Scotland, full of bens and lochs, is turned into the rolling tawny hills of sunny California, full of live oak and orange blossoms. Plenty of atmosphere and entertainment.Freddy Bartholemew isn't bad, considering he's only about eleven years old. Ordinarily, a little kid in a movie like this has to break down and weep somewhere along the line -- his champion dies or his father is killed by the enemy -- and during these scenes one wants to stomp them like insects. Here, though, Bartholemew is as tart as a pippin apple. He "speaks truth to authority." He's sufferable.The supporting cast is good, too, with a few exceptions. Warner Baxter isn't the notorious Scottish rebel. He's a guy who's at his wits end trying to produce a Broadway play. And Arlene Whelan isn't a young Scottish lass with crude demeanor. She's a graduate of an Orange-County hair-dressing salon who became one of Darryl F. Zanuck's mistresses and got the part.Best scene: Bartholomew meets his uncle, the phony and stingy Laird of the Manor, Miles Mander, who is straight out of Dickens. (His name is Ebeneezer Balfour.) He lives alone in a cold, dark castle, too cheap to feed the fire or lend his nephew a candle to find his way to his bedroom. On first meeting Bartholomew, he spoons about half a cup of oatmeal into the kid's bowl and says, "There you go, eat hearty." That Calvinism is like a disease.