Review of Kidnapped

Introduction

An adaption of the story by Robert Louis Stephenson, the film starts with the appearance of Davey Balfour (Laurence Douglas) at his Uncle`s house in the middle of the night with a letter of introduction. His Uncle Ebeneezer (Donald Pleasance in extremely windswept hair and a beard) first tries to kill him, and then has him kidnapped and taken to the Carolinas to be sold as a slave. On this ship he is forced into service as a cabin boy, essentially doing whatever he`s told to.

One dark night, the ship hits a small vessel carrying Alan Breck Stewart (Michael Caine), a man on the run after the defeat of the Scots at Culloden. Double bluffing the treacherous captain, Davey warns Breck (who I could have sworn was actually called Brick throughout this film) and the two stage a stand in the roundhouse of the ship - although Breck actually does most of the fighting. The ship then runs aground and only Breck and Davey end up ashore.

The two then decide to walk to Edinburgh; Breck to get a boat to France, Davey to have a wee word with Donald Pleasance. They must be careful though, Redcoats are swarming everywhere and some are lead by the evil Mungo Campbell, a Scot in league with the English.

And so starts a film with plenty of shooting, swordplay and running away…

Video

It`s an anamorphic presentation with some rich colours, but it`s also a little dark in places. There`s a problem with the picture though, with artefact damage appearing every now and then under the pretence of grain, I initially thought the picture was just grainy but a second viewing of some of it corrected that misapprehension.

Audio

Dolby Stereo 2.0 soundtrack but no subtitles.

Features

A very very short production piece, filmed at the time and in poor condition.

Three TV interviews with Michael Caine; two with Russell `Arty and one with Gloria Hunniford. None have owt to do with this feature, just Caine banging on about his working class roots.

Trailer

Stills Gallery

Conclusion

There have been at least twelve versions of this Robert Louis Stephenson tale so far, and I can`t understand why this one in particular warrants a release now. It`s not the worst but it ain`t the best either. The best one in my opinion was the 1978 adaptation with David McCallum, a natural Scot even though he spent a large proportion of his early career playing a Russian…

I didn`t really like this version as it seemed to have too languid a pace at the start and then rushed at the end. Add to that the mysterious Scots/Cockney accent that Caine presents here and you have something that is oddly off-kilter, especially alongside such luminaries as Gordon Jackson . Still Donald Pleasance is good value and fun, as are Jack Watson and Freddie Jones.

Overall though, disappointing and a little pointless…