The Kidnappers

The Kidnappers (1953)

The frankly sentimental story of love, hate and adventure in a primitive land!

After losing their father in the Boer War, orphaned brothers Harry and Davy must leave their home in Scotland to live with their grandmother and cantankerous grandfather in Nova Scotia. The boys want nothing more than a pet dog, but their grandfather refuses to get them one. Then, when the brothers find an abandoned baby, they decide to keep it – but the foundling may not have been abandoned after all.

Date of release
1953-12-01
TMDB
6.7 / 10 (15)
Runtime
1h 33m
Genres
Drama, Comedy, Family
Director
Philip Leacock

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Pinewood Studios

The Kidnappers is a 1953 British film, directed by Philip Leacock and written by Neil Paterson.

Production

The film was based on Neil Paterson's short story "Scotch Settlement". Paterson wrote the movie script in collaboration with director Philip Leacock, who had a seven year contract with Rank. The script added a love story involving a woman and a Boer doctor.

The film was made through Rank's main production arm at the time, Group Film Productions. All movies made by Group had to be approved by a board of directors, chaired by Michael Balcon. Leacock says the board initially turned down the script for the film. "At that time there was a strange relationship between Balcon and Rank," said Leacock.

I had a strange interview with this big man with a North Country accent who said he was about to do something he had never done before, and that was to go against the advice of his Board. He said he liked The Kidnappers and believed I would do a good job of it. Then he said he had one thing to ask me, and my heart sank; but he only asked me if I would bring in ‘the name of the Good Lord’ — I think that was the phrase he used.

Leacock added, "So it was made over Balcon's head and Balcon was very nice about it, I mean, he called up and said he was delighted that they had made an honest decision based on financial considerations and both he and Rank said, "Please do it as cheaply as possible," which we did."

The film's working title was Scotch Settlement. In August 1952 Earl St John, head of production at Rank, announced that the company would be making a series of films overseas, including Campbell's Kingdom and Scotch Settlement in Canada, Desperate Moment in Germany, and The Malta Story in Malta.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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