There are a number of screen adaptations of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale and a couple of very good ones. Sadly, this is not one of them which is a shame as with this quality cast I had been excited to see it and had been trying to track it down for some time. The trouble starts at the top of the cast list with the three stars Warner Baxter, Freddie Batholomew and Arleen Whelan, none of whom even attempt a Scots accent, which takes you out of the action more than somewhat. Baxter and Whelan are both miscast anyway with the former lacking charisma here and the latter guilty of demonstrating and posing rather than trying to inhabit her character. The adaptation also gives them a romantic subplot which does not exist in the original story and due to their shortcomings, is pointless anyway. The supporting cast, luckily, has a host of well known names and/or faces of the time; C Aubrey Smith brings gravitas as the Duke of Argyle, Reginald Owen is broad but enjoyable as a villainous ship's captain and Miles Mander is fun as the wretched and weaselly Ebenezer Balfour whose miserly ways and thunder stricken, tumble down castle are a highlight of the film. It is great to see Nigel Bruce and Mary Gordon, later to play in a number of films together as Dr Watson and Mrs Hudson in the Fox and Universal Sherlock Holmes series, as man and wife in this, though like John Carradine, they are criminally underused. Bruce, my main reason for tuning in, was in a number of classic novel to screen adaptations and fared a lot better in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) and Rebecca (1940).
Review of Kidnapped
