Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

ThrillMessage There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

HotToastyRag Lawrence Douglas has inherited some money, but when he tries to collect it from his uncle Donald Pleasance, Donald tries to kill him. When that doesn't work, he sells him off to slavery on a ship headed for the colonies. Such is the Robert Louis Stevenson story Kidnapped.As far as period pieces go, this isn't a very good one. Yes, the scenery is very beautiful, but it looks like every character popped up out of the '70s—which, let's face it, they did. Veteran actors Jack Hawkins and Trevor Howard take supporting roles, but they aren't really enough to save the movie. I got a kick out of the reversal of fortune, though; ten years earlier, Michael Caine had small roles in films starring Jack Hawkins, and in Kidnapped, the billing was reversed.Michael Caine fans won't be very happy with this movie; they'd be better off watching the other Robert Louis Stevenson adaptation Jekyll & Hyde, in which he does a very good job. He doesn't really add anything to the role—but then again, neither does anyone else in the cast—and he has an extremely muddled accent. It wasn't until he greeted Vivien Heilbron by calling her "Lassie" did I realize he was attempting a Scottish accent! Unless your absolute favorite genre of films is swashbuckling pirate movies, you might not want to sit through this one, especially since there really aren't too many swashbuckling pirates in the film.

ianlouisiana Mr Donald Pleasance - clearly basing his performance on Spike Milligan's interpretations of The Great McGonagall - is given a rare opportunity to air his "Scottish" accent.So,unfortunately,are Mr Freddie Jones,Mr Jack Watson,Mr Jack Hawkins and Sir Michael Caine,who,in "Kidnapped"is forced to wear clothes a P.G. Wodehouse bookmaker would regard as de trop. As a Scotsman raised in England I have no personal agenda here.Everybody hates the English - I accept that - it comes with the badge as it were. Mr Delbert Mann is as entitled as the next person to have a pop,much as fellow American Mr Mel Gibson did many years later,but he was taking the p*ss a bit using big name English actors to do it. It is a fact universally acknowledged that anything more subtle than the "See you Jimmy!" brand of Scottish dialect is beyond all but the finest mimics.Here,that beautiful treasure - house is raped,plundered then trampled over in favour of a generic accent like a third - rate touring company fumbling their way through "The Scottish Play" on a wet Tuesday night in Hull.An honourable exception is Mr Trevor Howard as the Advocate - General,a splendid exposition of the Upper - Class Scotsman,at home neither with the English nor his own countrymen. Mr Caine decides on a "Gorblimey Guv'nor - the noo" style of speech that never works for me.At least Mr Jones gives it the whole eye - rolling Robert Newton routine,no half - measures there. The exterior sequences are competent if not particularly exciting and there is a nice sense of the rugged countryside at times,but much of the movie is static,almost stagey in nature.The fight in the ship's cabin is clumsily handled and I feared some of the scenery was actually going to collapse under the weight of the flying bodies. Mr Robert Louis Stephenson himself once wrote..."Sometimes it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive" - words to consider if you are to avoid disappointment after deciding to watch this version of "Kidnapped"

mightyeye Actually, comparing with the many filmed interpretations it is a fair representation of Robert Louis Stevenson's grand story. At least it was filmed for the most part in Scotland and the lovely scenic shots add to the authenticity.I think there have been some unfair comments made on this particular interpretation but in general I would say it deserves a far better reception than some have given. I have no problem with the English actors playing Scottish characters, Caine here is a passable lowland Scots as Allan Breck. Actors after all are judged by their skills and interpretation of the character and that's all that matters, it would be a sad day if we have to be Scottish solely to play a Scottish character. However, I'm not sure that Caine's costume would be one anyone would be seen dead in, it was clearly awful, and hardly the sort of attire a rebel would be running around in.What matters is, that it is a fine interpretation of Stevenson's story.

WilliamOfRubruck I enjoyed this movie very much. It is loosely based on two Robert Louis Stevenson novels, Kidnapped and its sequel Catriona. Those who would religiously stick to the contents of these novels will be disappointed in the adaptation. However, the film has, as it should IMHO, a world and plot of its own. Moreover, the plot is engaging and quite exciting.The film movingly portrays a culture and political cause on the verge of destruction and the politics behind it. To a certain extent, it has to modify the plot of the two novels to effectively do so. Now it might have been nice if we could have heard the Scottish language spoken amongst the Highlanders. This absence makes it harder to portray the cultural conflict which was important both in the period and in the novels. However, we can forgive the film's makers by remembering that such was rarely done in the early 1970s. The plot may not be entirely accurate in detail (the Appin murder, etc), but the portrayal of the Jacobite Rebellion is both very accurate and insightful, surprisingly so for a big-time film. The ending is a terrific and original attempt to convey the thoughts and psychology of a man through the medium of film. All that aside, it is a historical adventure. One either likes that genre or doesn't. If the former, then the chances are you will like this.