Considerable liberties have been taken with Stevenson's novel in this instance, presumably in order to accommodate a female lead (Arleen Whelan). The plot has also been re-arranged to allow for an early meeting between David and Breck. Ebenezer's entrance is delayed for well over half-an-hour and the actual kidnapping doesn't take place until the movie is half over. Alas, Warner Baxter is uncomfortably miscast as Breck, and even Freddie Bartholomew does not make much of an impression. It seems obvious that the director could do little with him. The rest of the cast is likewise disappointing, with the exceptions of Reginald Owen's Captain Hoseason and Arthur Hohl's Riach. Even Sir C. Aubrey Smith can make little headway against the jingoistic lines the script hands him. Alfred Werker's direction, alas, is solidly unimaginative – even the sequence on the stairs is poorly handled. In all, Werker fails to utilize the sets to their best pictorial advantage and Toland's camera-work is thus wasted on studiously dull compositions. Only the episodes in the fog before the castle and on board the ship stand out. In all, despite some stirring crowd scenes, the film has the look of a limited budget production. I feel this is not a film that Robert Louis Stevenson would be proud to acknowledge. (I am a direct descendant of Robert Stevenson, RLS's grandfather).
Review of Kidnapped
