Thomas Mitchell

Edna Best

Freddie Bartholomew

Terry Kilburn

Tim Holt

Bobbie Quillan

Christian Rub

John Wray

Herbert Rawlinson

Jack Stoney

Orson Welles

Edward Ludwig

Gene Towne

C. Graham Baker

Walter Ferris

Nicholas Musuraca

Albert Simpson

George Crone

Anthony Collins

Edward Stevenson

Johann David Wyss

Adventure

Swiss Family Robinson

RKO Radio Pictures

United States of America

English

island

based on novel or book

shipwreck

18th century

swiss family robinson

I thought I'd give this a watch before watching the Disney remake, given they are both on the latter's streaming service. I like 1940's <em>'Swiss Family Robinson'</em>, though there are many ways it could be improved upon which is what I hope the 1960 production does.

This one, made by RKO Pictures, is enjoyable. The action sequences look decent enough, the acting is solid while the premise is very intriguing. I rate the film almost from start-to-finish, the moments which make up that last part disappoints unfortunately - the ending doesn't really make sense.

Thomas Mitchell (William) and Freddie Bartholomew (Jack) are my standout characters, both of those two give good performances. Edna Best & Co. are all fine, though. It's with Best's character that makes the finale poor in my eyes. I won't spoil what happens, but it doesn't work in my opinion - especially in connection with what else occurs.

Those criticisms of mine stop me from placing this higher. However, it is still an entertaining flick from 1940.

CinemaSerf

Based on Johann Wyss' tale and relying heavily on a wonderful soundtrack, this is a much more faithful adaptation of the story of a well-to-do Swiss clockmaker and his family who decide to escape a Europe beset by the Napoleonic wars and start anew in New Guinea. En route they are shipwrecked by a storm and have to make do on a desert island. They cannibalise what's left of their ship and start to make a new home with astonishing - slightly incredible - adeptness. The cast gel well, though as per the book, not without their demons. Edna Best "Mrs. Robinson" struggles the most as her gay society life has been replaced by a much grittier survival-based existence; the rather over-indulged boys are growing older, but not necessarily wiser (or nicer) and this causes their father (Thomas Mitchell) to have headaches all around. There is some degree of triumph from considerable adversity for the family as they discover that they can rise to the challenges - despite foul weather and poisonous spiders. At times it plays almost like a silent film - with Schubert's "Quartet in A Minor" substituting for the dialogue in a suitably rousing fashion... It rarely gets an outing these days, but if you get an opportunity you should watch it.

Swiss Family Robinson( 1940)

From the BEST "Best Seller" in Fiction History!

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A review by r96sk

Written by r96sk on Fri Jun 26 2020

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