Rob Roy: The Highland Rogue *** (1953, Richard Todd, Glynis Johns, James Robertson Justice, Michael Gough) – Classic Movie Review 10,988

Director Harold French’s 1953 Technicolor film Rob Roy: The Highland Rogue stars Richard Todd, Glynis Johns, James Robertson Justice, and Michael Gough. It is a box-office flop Walt Disney Productions action adventure set in Scotland that tells the 18th-century tale of Scottish highland clan chief Rob Roy MacGregor (Todd) battling the English King George I (Eric Pohlmann).

Director French keeps the simple action-packed story whizzing along the lochs and glens of a picture-book Scotland, and the four stars are good, and the production and filming is excellent, benefiting from a budget of about $1.8 million and Guy Green’s Technicolor shooting on the actual Scottish countryside. The film remains entertaining, even though the screenplay is muddled and some of the acting is not always of the top rank.

The screenplay is Lawrence Edward Watkin, based, according to Walt Disney, on history and legend rather than the novel by Sir Walter Scott.

Walt Disney Productions had success with its first live-action film, Treasure Island (1950), shot in England, and followed it up with The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men and The Sword and the Rose, both directed by Ken Annakin and starring Richard Todd. Rob Roy was filmed just as Sword and the Rose was released, with the same four stars, and Walt Disney chose Harold French to direct when the Rank Organisation refused to loan him Annakin again.

The formula is good. Disney said: ‘I like history, it’s universal. Subjects like Robin Hood and the Tudors appeal to everyone. And costumes don’t date, you know. I can release these films over and over again and they won’t get the kind of laugh you get from modern subjects made ten years back.’

It was a British Royal Command Performance choice film. The film’s premiere was the Royal Command Performance Film Gala on 26 October 1953 at the Odeon Leicester Square in London before its US release on 4 February 1954.

Rob Roy was shot on location in Scotland, including at Corriegrennan and near Aberfoyle, with studio scenes shot at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, England.

However, Walt Disney pulled back on making costume pictures after box office returns of this and The Sword in the Rose were, as he said, not up to expectations in the US, though he said they were more successful in other countries and were expected to return their costs. It was the last Disney film released through RKO Radio Pictures and the final Walt Disney Studios production to be shot at Elstree Studios.

Also in the cast are Finlay Currie, Geoffrey Keen, Archie Duncan, Jean Taylor Smith, Russell Waters, Marjorie Fielding, Eric Pohlmann, Michael Goodliffe, and Ewen Solon.

The story is remade as Rob Roy in 1995.

Richard Todd recalled in his autobiography that the extras were soldiers of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders who had just returned from the Korean War. They received only their normal pay of seven shillings a day and the War Office received 25 shillings a day. Questions about these payments were raised in Parliament. Todd said that as well as providing thrilling battle scenes for the viewers, the soldiers used the opportunity to get back at their non-commissioned officers enthusiastically. He admitted that his first scene leading a charge, led to an injury when he stepped in a rabbit hole. Todd’s fee was only £15,000 (not much from a budget of about $1.8 million). He said that Rob Roy ‘instituted the first protection racket’.

 © Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,988

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