THE KIDNAPPERS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 792, 24 September 1954, Page 17

THE KIDNAPPERS

(Rank-Nolbandov-Parkyn) EW filmgoers, I imagine, will disagree with the grading I have given The Kidnappersor The Little Kidnappers, as the New Zealand distributors are calling it-at the top of the page, yet I must admit that this week I don’t feel as completely sure as I usually do about the films which win top marks. The Kidnappers is a remarkable piece of work which everyone should see. It should delight audiences everywhere in much the same way as, say, The Quiet Man, But looked at as a whole has it, I wonder, the quality of greatness which some are prepared to allow it? The story is set in a Scottish settlement in Nova Scotia soon after the Boer

War. Two. small boys whose father has been killed in the war go to live with their grandfather on a poor, rather lonely farm. The old man is a Puritan of the sort who won’t allow a picture book even of Bible stories in the house, and who keeps a Dutch neigh-

bour-he hates all "Boers’"-off a disputed piece of land with a rifle. Desperately wanting a dog or some other creature that they can love and play with, the boys eventually adopt and keep in their hideout for several days a baby which they find unattended. The most remarkable thing about this film is the astonishing performance of five-year-old Vincent-.Winter as the younger of the two boys, Among British directors Carol Reed is supposed to be the one with the magic touch with child actors, but he has never given us anything so startling as this little essay in innocence and naturalness which captivates us from its very first line of dialogue. It’s a well-written part, too. As the older brother, aged eight, Jon Whiteley also is outstandingly good-how good you realise when you try to think what you would say about him if he had the show to himself. What’s more, these two youngsters give a sustained performance -it’s their film and they are seldom off the screen. Chief credit for their response to direction should probably go to a New Zealander, Margaret Thomson (rather than to the film’s director, Philip Leacock), who spotted young Winter in an Aberdeen school and coached both boys for the film. Given the same material to work with, a de Sica might have done no better, Apart from the boys the main character, and certainly the most interesting one, is the grandfather (Duncan Macrae), really a far from simple person. You should watch the fine early sequence in which his character is established, especially on the walk home to the farm, if you are to find the end of the story convincing. Among other characters Adrienne Corri’s Aunt Kirsty, a woman whom life is passing by, shows that this young actress is not limited to the sort of part she had in The River. I may be too solemn about this, but the. feeling I’m sure most people will have that they have seen a "delightful"

film and nothing more is probably the cause of the faint, persistent doubt I have about The Kidnappers. To deprive a child of any of the opportunities for growth and development is just about the ultimate crime, and no child ever had me more on its side than the boys in this film who find themselves up against Puritanism in its most austere’ and lifedenying form, With a theme like that this film as a whole might have been really unforgettable. Considering the pitfalls it’s extraordinarily unsentimental, it’s well made, many of the scenes are memorable, and the quite credibly happy ending is tense and moving. Yet-unless I’m just an incorrigible sourpuss-some-where, I suspect, between the story (by Neil Paterson) and our very delight in those astonishing child players the something that would make it a great film is missing. But don’t stay away from it, You’re almost certain to like it, and even if my hunch is right it’s still worth seeing, if for young Vincent Winter alone.

BAROMETER FINE: "The Kidnappers." MAINLY FAIR: " udden Fear." OVERCAST: "Anna