In Search of the Castaways

Young Miss Hayley Mills single - handedly rescues "In search of the castaways" from the state of stuporific banality where M. Chevalier,Mr Hyde White and Master Anderson had abandoned it.It is poorly directed,sloppily edited,studio - bound and mediocre in every department.Miss Mills,trouper that she is,grasps this pretty dreadful film and by sheer force of personality gives it what small merit it has. A plot as full of non - sequiturs as any Monty Python movie does not bear even the most cursory examination.The songs,surely merely a device to divert attention from the fact that M.Chevalier has little to do except curl his lips and roll his "r"s and look roguish every now and again. Mr Hyde White does his customary grumpy old posh geezer schtick and nods his head a lot. The FX are crude even by the standards of the day and I should think once the movie made 50 bucks at the box office it went into profit. I saw Miss Mills in "Wild at heart" on TV the other night and she is still in the alchemy business.Some people,eh?

Jules Verne gets Disneyfied again by the reliable Robert Stevenson, with Hayley Mills, Wilfred Hyde-White, George Sanders and Maurice Chevalier, singing some songs by the Sherman brothers. Given a story that traveled around the world and got its characters involved in floods, volcanic eruptions, mutinies, and capture by cannibals, somehow, everyone remains pink-faced & scrubbed clean at all times, with every bow-tie perfectly tied. It's a perfect movie at a moment when the strains of Hollywood's erosion and its retreat into what is today called a "tentpole movie" model was just about to collapse. While the Major studios like Fox were still relying on blockbusters like THE LONGEST DAY (which outgrossed this film), cheap producers like AIP were serving the Teen market. By the end of the decade, everyone would be going after them and movies like this would be seen as quaint. Well, I guess I'm old-fashioned. I love it.

A young boy and girl look for their father with the aid of a disbelieving old English captain and his young son, brought together by a Frenchman who found a note in a bottle. Seeing this movie as a youngster, I found them all delightful (altho I haven't seen alot of his work, I must agree about Chevalier being tedious listening to him explain things. Only Hyde-White's attention and irritation at Maurice diluted any that disdain this viewer may have felt). But the earthquake, the snowslide, the giant condor, the flood, the burning tree, and expecially the suddenly unexpected leopard all made for a good, entertaining film to hold my attention. The slip? Oh, we went the wrong way. Have to backtrack. Definite loss of attention as to what is going on. Pity that George Sander's speech merged with Hyde-White and Chevalier dialects couldn't have helped. Perhaps had he played the father of Mills and her brother instead of the uninteresting actor who did play the part (another downer in the film), things would have been better. Mills and her two male counterparts were delightful to see when I was young so I still enjoy them now. Old Bill Gaye was a definite pick-me-up the film needed. A shame the regular cast couldn't have held on to the film to the end. In watching this movie now, I can't help but check out the characterization of the natives performing their 'ceremony' while the prisoners are escaping. Especially check out the expressions of the 'chieftain'. Hilarious.

I recently watched this movie for the first time and found very enjoyable and it is a good old adventure movie. The only thing I didn't like about it were the songs, which seemed pointless and did not fit in with the storyline. An excellent cast, which includes Hayley Mills (Tiger Bay), Wilfred Hyde White (North West Frontier), George Sanders (Village of the Damned) and Wilfred Brambell (Steptoe and Son). All play excellent parts and they seem to be enjoying themselves. The special effects are excellent too. While searching for Hayley Mills's dad, the expedition encounters dangers such as an earthquake, volcano, tidal wave and flood, cannibals, a leopard and a rather unfriendly giant eagle. They do find him at the end, alive and well. I found this movie excellent but the songs do let it down slightly. Rating: 4 stars out of 5.

Based upon Jule's Vernes 'Captain Grant's Children', In Search of Those Castaways (1962) is an incoherent yarn about Mary Grant (Haley Mills), the determined daughter of a missing sea captain (Jack Gwillim) who sets about traveling to exotic ports and hidden mysterious locales in search of dear IL' daddy. On this trip she takes family friend and confident, Jacque Paganell (the marvelous Maurice Chevalier) and meets up with the unscrupulous and hardened, Thomas Ayerton (George Sanders). The cast also includes Wilfred Hyde-White as the stuffy Lord Glenaravan and Michael Anderson Jr. as his son John. But Robert Stevenson's direction on this occasion seems to fall apart on a series of vignettes that have no coherent or driving narrative. Verne's works usually present this sort of problem for screenwriters, in that Verne himself often wrote episodic stories that later became loosely strung together as fantasy novels of their day; visionary – then; stagnant and wholly unappealing by 1960s standards; completely out of touch by today's expectations. Peter Ellenshaw's matte paintings extend the world of fantasy that Mary and company traverse to good effect. There's some great trick photography taking place during the flood sequence. There's also Chevalier warbling a very family friendly little ditty, 'Enjoy it.' In the end, it seems hard to take up Chevalier on that musical request. The end of the story is a forgone conclusion by reel two. We know Mary's going to find her father; it's a Disney film. There seems to be some discrepancy as to the proper aspect ratio for this film; 1:33:1 or 1:75:1. The theatrical prints appear to have been printed in the latter format since title credit sequences on this DVD occasionally run off the top and bottom of the screen. However, an usual practice occurred in the late 1960s and early 70s in American cinema, whereby certain films were shot in full frame for the sake of economy and then artificially cropped to 1:75:1 for theatrical presentation. Having explained this; the print for In Search of Those Castaways might very well have been one such film, with title sequences specifically formatted for the 1:75:1 theatrical engagement. Hence, when Disney remastered the DVD they forgot to format the titles for 1:33:1 to avoid confusion. At the very least, these credits have not been framed properly. At worst, Disney has given us another full frame only version of a widescreen movie. Yet, for the rest of the presentation, everything looks pretty much as it should. There is no apparent cropping to speak of and scenes appear quite natural in 1:33:1. As for the rest of the image quality: colors are quite solid, pure and rich. Blacks are deep. Whites are generally clean. Film grain is present during the matte shots but absent elsewhere for a picture that will surely not disappoint. The audio is engaging, if dated.

First of all let me say that any film with Maurice Chevalier will automatically get a look from me. Even though Hayley Mills was Walt Disney's number one star at the time, Chevalier's international status as a performer guaranteed him top billing. The younger cast members had a lot to do in keeping up with him. Robert Gwillim who is a sea captain and father to Hayley Mills and Keith Hamshere has been lost at sea for many years now and who knows where in this wide world with 5/6 of it covered by ocean. But a swallowed bottle with a note that was found in the belly of a shark by scientist Maurice Chevalier sends the three of them in search of Gwillim's employer Wilfrid Hyde-White to finance an expedition to search. Said note leads them first to South America and then to Australia because Maurice misreads the clues. He did that a lot in this film, an occupational hazard with eccentric scientists. This was the Magic Kingdom's second dealing with a Jules Verne story, the first being the classic 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. Sad to say while In Search Of The Castaways has some interesting moments and in spots looks more like an Indiana Jones film, it does not make it above the juvenile level. Watching it today, I expected to see Harrison Ford ride in with bullwhip cracking to save the whole kit and kaboodle of them from villain George Sanders. Maurice's first mistake took them 10,000 miles out of their way. It's not often one gets a second chance there.

How wonderful to see a movie the entire family can watch. Fine acting and plenty of music and laughter along with suspense, drama and human kindness. Not to be scared if a child will curse or anything to upset the audience. Maurice Chaviar and entire cast is superb. What a wonderful movie to just sit and relax and know you will be entertained. I never get bored watching this movie. When I was stationed in the US Army at Russelsheim, Germany,I got to see this movie in the German language. Again, it is a pleasure to have another entertaining motion picture to view over and over with family and friends. Thank You Walt Disney and his staff.

A journey looking for captain Grant (Jack Gwillim) is realized by a teenage girl Hayley Mills (Pollyanna), her little boy brother along with two veterans (Wilfrid Hyde White and singer Maurice Chevalier) and a young man (Michael Anderson Jr.) . During the long travel they find natural disasters as earthquake in the Andes , fire and flood in the ocean and volcano in New Zealand and they attempt to overcome . Besides they encounter different tribes as Araucans (an Indian chief played by Antonio Cifariello ), Patagons (Argentina) and Maoris (New Zealand). The picture contains adventures , humor , emotion , songs , stirring action and sensational outdoors . The film displays some scenes have you on the edge of your seat as the amusing images when the protagonists sledge over floe . Excellent , powerful cast with sympathetic Hayley Mills and Maurice Chevalier and with the cynic George Sanders . Colorful cinematography reflecting marvellous landscapes by Paul Beeson . Lively and evocative music by Willyam Alwyn . Abounds matte painting and special effects by the Disney specialist Peter Ellenshaw . It's a winning Disney effort made by its usual director Robert Stevenson (Herbie , gnome mobile , Mary Poppins) . It's a must for the Disney fans but is beautifully released , being recommendable for all family and especially for little boys public . Rating : Good and entertaining.

In Search of The Castaway's is probably my favorite adventure film. It contains a lot of very unique items and fun. Some of the movie is not very realistic, ex. a huge wave of water suddenly floods a desert, making it into a big lake. Some things in it don't even exist in real life, ex. a giant flying bird, so big that it can carry a person. But elements like these really do add to it and help make it more exciting. Many of the special effects in the movie are in my opinion, very impressive for their time, even though they sometimes seem a little inaccurate. Another thing I like about the movie is that it gives a great sense of teamwork and fearlessness, people going out of their way and doing whatever it takes to try to save others. And though there are some disagreements and rudeness between the main characters, but unlike some adventure films like Swiss Family Robinson, there really aren't any major conflicts between them, which makes it a lot more pleasant.

To destroy an epic adventure as Jules Verne's "The Children of Captain Grant" in such a way - is a crime that cannot be pardoned. The twist of the history in the beginning, the drop-outs of large parts of the history, and the cheap stage settings is not even worthy for a studio like Walt Disney. Now of course some would excuse this to the lack of special effects compared to today, but that is really no real excuse. In Norway, the book wasn't even translated and published in complete edition to 2013, but this is shameful. To destroy a major literary work like this is ... well I really don't have words for it. I am shocked.