Kidnapped (1948)

• Director
  • William Beaudine
• Writers
  • Robert Louis Stevenson
  • Scott Darling
• Stars
  • Roddy McDowall
  • Sue England
  • Dan O'Herlihy

  For his first independent production, former child star Roddy McDowall selected the tried-and-true Robert Louis Stevenson classic Kidnapped. McDowall reserves the plum role of David Balfour for himself, while Dan O'Herlihy, McDowall's costar in Orson Welles' MacBeth, is cast as Scottish patriot Alan Breck. The story is the familiar one about a young man (McDowall) cheated out of his birthright by his wicked, covetous uncle (Houseley Stevenson). Kidnapped and sold into slavery, Balfour escapes and makes his way back to Scotland, where he befriends the swashbuckling Breck and the lovely Aileen (Sue England). Several exciting adventures later, Balfour returns to his ancestral home to settle accounts with his uncle. Laid low by threadbare production values, Kidnapped is one of lesser screen adaptations of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel, though at least it's more faithful to the source than the 1938 20th Century-Fox version.