Swiss Family Robinson **** (1960, John Mills, Dorothy McGuire, James MacArthur, Tommy Kirk, Kevin Corcoran, Janet Munro, Sussue Hayakawa, Cecil Parker) – Classic Movie Review 6933

Director Ken Annakin’s 1960 young people’s adventure movie Swiss Family Robinson is an old-style treat, a happy, well-produced, and thoroughly entertaining Disney version of the shipwrecked family stranded on a desert island saga.

Based on the novel Johann David Wyss in a screenplay by Lowell S Hawley, the famous story is topped off with a jolly finish as the Swiss Family Robinson take on Pirate Chief Kuala (Sussue Hayakawa)’s pantomime-style band of cut-throats. With a light-hearted tone, there’s no real danger here but there is plenty of entertainment and adventure.

At 127 minutes, Swiss Family Robinson is slightly over-extended, but there is plenty of excitement and evidence of careful filming everywhere, particularly the elaborate tree house which soon reappeared in Disneyland.

John Mills plays the Swiss Family Robinson patriarch this time, with Dorothy McGuire as his wife (here’s to you Mrs Robinson!), and very enjoyable they both are, and there are likeable Disney kids James MacArthur, Tommy Kirk and Kevin Corcoran too. Also in the cast are Janet Munro, Cecil Parker, Andy Ho, Milton Reid and Larry Taylor.

Harry Waxman’s Technicolor cinematography looks lovely and it is exotically filmed on Tobago.

Swiss Family Robinson is directed by Ken Annakin, runs 127 minutes, is a Walt Disney Productions film, released by Buena Vista, is written by Lowell S Hawley, is shot in widescreen and Technicolor by Harry Waxman, is produced by Bill Anderson and Basil Keys, and is scored by William Alwyn.

It was immensely profitable. It cost $5 million and grossed more than $40 million in the US.

It follows Edward Ludwig’s 1940 version of Swiss Family Robinson with Thomas Mitchell, Edna Best, Freddie Bartholomew and Tim Holt. Disney bought the rights to the 1940 version and tried to confiscate all known prints of it, but happily a few survived.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6933

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