Run Wild, Run Free *** (1969, John Mills, Sylvia Syms, Mark Lester, Bernard Miles, Gordon Jackson, Fiona Fullerton) – Classic Movie Review 13,100

Run Wild, Run Free (1969, John Mills).

Mark Lester stars as a mute child living on Dartmoor with his best friend a wild pony, in the prettily photographed 1969 British family film Run Wild, Run Free.

Director Richard C Sarafian’s 1969 British children’s film Run Wild, Run Free stars John Mills, Sylvia Syms, Mark Lester, Bernard Miles, Gordon Jackson, and Fiona Fullerton.

Mark Lester followed his role as Oliver Twist in the musical film Oliver! with this prettily photographed family film about a mute child, Philip Pansome (Mark Lester), living on Dartmoor with his best friend a wild pony.

He gives another sweet and soulful performance, and the British stalwarts add vim to a tale that, while pleasant and mainly appealing, sometimes lacks zest. It is a lovely old-time British cast. Gordon Jackson and Sylvia Syms play Mr and Mrs Pansome, John Mills is The Moorman, and Bernard Miles (in his final cinema movie) plays old Reg.

The screenplay by David Rook is based on David Rook’s novel The White Colt.

It is shot in Technicolor by Wilkie Cooper and made entirely on location on Dartmoor, Devon, England, UK.

It was filmed in July 1968.

It runs 100 minutes.

The title track ‘Run Wild, Run Free’ (music by David Whitaker, lyrics by Don Black) is sung by The New Christy Minstrels.

Richard Caspar Sarafian (April 28, 1930 – September 18, 2013) is best known as the director of the 1971 film Vanishing Point, as well as Run Wild, Run Free in 1969, Man in the Wilderness in 1971, and The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing in 1973.

Richard Sarafian’s 1986 vigilante action thriller Eye of the Tiger stars Gary Busey.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,100

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