ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

wes-connors In 1747 Scotland, rebellious Warner Baxter (as Alan Breck) leads his men against British rule and becomes an outlawed traitor. Meanwhile, young teenager Freddie Bartholomew (a David Balfour) is at school when he learns his long-absent father has died and left him a letter to deliver to wealthy uncle Miles Mander (as Ebenezer Balfour). On the way to his castle, young Bartholomew witnesses an assassination. Because he knows the assassin's identity, Bartholomew is kidnapped by Mr. Baxter. For another reason, Bartholomew is pursued by Mr. Mander. Danger and adventure continue in earnest...Based on the classic story by Robert Louis Stevenson, but significantly altered to play up Baxter's character and his romance with pretty newcomer Arleen Whelan (as Jean MacDonald). Although it's not the first or last time an older star was paired with a much younger mate, it appears ill-fitting here. The script helps, a least, by acknowledging Ms. Whelan's youthful appearance, when she pretends to be Bartholomew's mother. Otherwise, this is an excellently produced adventure story. The scenes involving Bartholomew and Mander are especially well staged. "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" will have you humming.******* Kidnapped, The Adventures of David Balfour (5/27/38) Alfred L. Werker ~ Freddie Bartholomew, Warner Baxter, Arleen Whelan, Miles Mander

Robert J. Maxwell Fast, efficient, inaccurate adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel of a young boy (Bartholemew) swept up in the Scottish rebellion against the King's tax collectors.When you get one of these 1930s black-and-white, no-nonsense stories of famous novels or famous men from a studio like 20th-Century Fox, you get a respectable and not-very-challenging studio product. These are all professional and commercial products. The guys behind and in front of the camera knew their business. The sets are evocatively dressed. Rainy Scotland, full of bens and lochs, is turned into the rolling tawny hills of sunny California, full of live oak and orange blossoms. Plenty of atmosphere and entertainment.Freddy Bartholemew isn't bad, considering he's only about eleven years old. Ordinarily, a little kid in a movie like this has to break down and weep somewhere along the line -- his champion dies or his father is killed by the enemy -- and during these scenes one wants to stomp them like insects. Here, though, Bartholemew is as tart as a pippin apple. He "speaks truth to authority." He's sufferable.The supporting cast is good, too, with a few exceptions. Warner Baxter isn't the notorious Scottish rebel. He's a guy who's at his wits end trying to produce a Broadway play. And Arlene Whelan isn't a young Scottish lass with crude demeanor. She's a graduate of an Orange-County hair-dressing salon who became one of Darryl F. Zanuck's mistresses and got the part.Best scene: Bartholomew meets his uncle, the phony and stingy Laird of the Manor, Miles Mander, who is straight out of Dickens. (His name is Ebeneezer Balfour.) He lives alone in a cold, dark castle, too cheap to feed the fire or lend his nephew a candle to find his way to his bedroom. On first meeting Bartholomew, he spoons about half a cup of oatmeal into the kid's bowl and says, "There you go, eat hearty." That Calvinism is like a disease.

helenevigne A pro-peace film, typical of the Munich spirit in 1938. The movie, turn in 1938, is as far from Stevenson that Stevenson himself is -intentionally-from Walter Scott "Rob Roy" for instance.The end, with its pro-peace sentence with"love of country"etc.sounds particularly anachronistic. The plot also neglects the tower scene, which is shorted. We think of what Hitchcock could have done. The novel is such a good plot that something of it does remains in the film. But think of adding a romance in "Treasure Island"for instance..! The casting is good, particularly Freddie Bartholomew and of course Warner Baxter, although not Scottish at all. I appreciate also to find in a second-part John Carradine with his long thin face which could be so impressive in western films and also as the abominable Nazi Heydrich in "Hitler's Madman", some five years later, when the Second World War was at its climax.

MartinHafer Years ago, I read Stevenson's story, KIDNAPPED. When I watched this 1938 version of the story, I couldn't help but wonder if I was losing my mind, as so much of it seemed like it wasn't in the book--particularly the romantic subplot and quite a bit of the action. Well, when I later checked, I found that for once I wasn't losing my mind--the story was heavily re-worked and in many places it bore little similarity to the novel. Additionally, I was surprised that despite the story being set in Scotland, none of the characters sounded like Scots--having mostly American and a few English accents. In particular, I have always liked Warner Baxter as an actor, but here he sounds exactly the same as he did in practically all his films--like a nice but not particularly rugged American.Yet despite all this, the story still was rather enjoyable and kept my attention throughout. Very nice looking sets and a basic story that is hard to screw up, it isn't surprising that the story still delivers. It's well worth a look, but considering that KIDNAPPED is such an easy read, I still recommend the book over this film.