ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Pow and I discussed this fine movie on the phone recently after he noticed that All Sci-Fi had no thread for it!

GASP! My God, who's in charge here?

(Oh, right . . . that would be me.)

So, I decided to correct this oversight by creating a thread-starting post with the nice "brewsterized" poster above, which I created by using the beautiful Blu-ray box art.

Click on the image if you'd like to order the $49.99 BD.


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And I'll add the trailer below, even though the only one YouTube has is from a VHS tape.

But it's a fine trailer, and it certainly puts me in the mood for the movie.

Now Pow has a proper place to add his fine post, which will have more facts about the movie than you can shake your wireless mouse at!

________ In Search of the Castaways VHS Trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

Wikipedia:

In Search of the Castaways was a Walt Disney production. It was released on December 19, 1962.

Director: Robert Stevenson. Screenplay: Lowell S. Hawley. Based upon the Jules Verne novel The Children of Captain Grant, first published in 1867.

Synopsis: In 19th Century Britain, Mary Grant (Hayley Mills) and her younger brother Robert (Keith Hamshere), along with Professor Paganel (Maurice Chevalier) plead to wealthy shipping magnate Lord Glenarvan (Wilfred Hyde-White) and his son John (Michael Anderson Jr.), to embark on a rescue mission to find their missing father, Captain John Grant, who has mysteriously vanished while at sea.

The intrepid group embark on a quest for Captain Grant that will take them from the Andes in South America, Australia, and ultimately New Zealand.

Along the way they encounter an earthquake, avalanche, a deadly ride down a mountain, a massive flash flood, an active volcano, giant condor, alligators, jaguars, deadly mutineers, and man-eating dogs.

The movie was originally titled The Castaways.

Esteemed actor Charles Laughton was intended to play Lord Glenarvan but had to withdraw due to illness.

Walt Disney was inspired to make Castaways due to his Swiss Family Robinson (1960) having been a smash hit for his studio. Jules Verne's novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea had also been an enormous box office winner for Disney, so he looked over other potential Verne properties for adaptation to film.

Sidebar: I would hazard to guess that Walt saw that 20th Century Fox had also had a big hit with their movie Journey to the Center of the Earth that was also adapted from the Jules Verne novel of the same name.

Wiki: Jonathan Mills, Hayley's younger brother, did a screen test for the role of Robert Grant and won the role. Hayley & Jonathan's mother decided that having a third child acting (Juliet Mills, Hayley & Jonathan's older sister was also an actress) was too much. She refused to let Jonathan accept the role.

Principal photography was at Pinewood Studios in England and lasted from August 8, to November 10, of 1961.

The entire production took eight months.

Four sound stages were utilized at Pinewood Studios which is located twenty miles west of London.

An elaborate set was constructed in a huge tank to simulate the flash flood sequence.

The numerous sets required for the film included: sea ports for Glascow, Scotland and Melbourne, Australia in the year 1868. Other sets included:

~ The recreation of a 150-foot tall South American Ombu tree with 600 branches that were flown in from the Argentina Pampas.

~ An Andes mountain set.

~ A New Zealand Maori village and a volcano.

Sidebar: Castaways is a family friendly entertaining movie with high adventure, action, and fun.

Sidebar: True enough, some of the special effects are now outdated. Heck, it's a sixty year old film! Still, it is a rousing adventure with a very fine cast.

[Bud Brewster]

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The Blu-ray is $44.95 from Amazon, but the DVD is just $9.99.

Tempting . . . very tempting.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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I recently bought this BD from eBay, a flawless disc, and I watched it today.

Haley Mills starts right out winning the viewer's hearts in a close up of her angelic face when she begs a London constable to allow her and her brother to be admitted onto an English lord's yacht during his high society party, to enlist his aid in rescuing their lost father.

Their companion in the coming adventure is Maurice Chevalier, a French professor who found a note in a bottle, which he discovered in inside shark while fishing!

Hayley and Maurice are accompanied by the young lady's younger brother (Robert Grant), and together they set off on a Jules Verne inspired adventure which the Disney studio made after the success of Swiss Family Robinson (1960).

There's much to praise about this imaginative Disney movie, even though it isn't as exciting as the beloved 1960 movie whose success encouraged Disney to make it. But the presence of the charming and lovely Miss Mills is a real plus.

I'm pleased to report that Halley Mills is now 77 and still going strong after having beaten breast cancer.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

I noticed while watching In Search of the Castaways the other night that it shares some similarities to the another wonderful Disney period adventure film, 1974's Island at the Top of the World.

Castaways: A sailing ship is key to the protagonists in their quest
Island: An airship is crucial for the lead characters journey.

Castaways: The story is about two youngsters in search of their missing father.
Island: The driving plot point is a man seeking his missing son.

Castaways: A French geology professor goes on the journey in order to help.
Island: An American archeologist is hired to assist on the expedition.

Castaways: Early in the film, we see our heroes in the snow covered Andes mountains.
Island: The Viking settlement is surrounded by snow and ice.

Castaways: The searchers end up riding on a large chunk of the mountain shaken off by an earthquake.
Island: The searchers ride on top a large piece of ice on the water.

Castaways: They ride on top of the mountain piece through an ice cavern.
Island: They descend into a frozen ice cavern.

Castaways: They manage to push a massive boulder towards pursuing hostile natives.
Island: Hostile Vikings push a massive boulder down a crater towards the heroes.

Castaways: Erupting volcano & lava.
Island: Same.

Castaways: A huge flood is encountered by the searchers.
Island: A flood is encountered by the searchers in the ice cavern.

Castaways: The gigantic tree that the searchers have taken refuge in from the flood catches on fire.
Island: The airship the heroes are in is set on fire by a fire arrow.

Castaways: The Grant children find their missing father alive.
Island: Sir Anthony Ross finds his son Donald alive.

[Pow]

From The Disney Films book by Leonard Maltin.

Castaways is a briskly paced, lavishly filmed adventure, But a curious one at the same time. Because the opening sequences are realistic, and the search for Captain Grant a logical one, the audience is totally unprepared for the sudden burst of fantasy that propels the film into an ever-mounting collage of impossible happenings. The rescue party is spending the night on a ledge high in the Andes Mountains, when suddenly there is an earthquake and the ledge breaks off, turning into a giant sled! From this point on, the bizarre fantasy elements never stop coming. Ordinarily, this would be prime Disney material, but here somehow the effect is diminished. There is not only the suddenness, but the total lack of rhyme or reason, unlike the earlier Disney/Verne endeavor 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, where everything fit into place.

There seems no earthly purpose for throwing in a giant condor or massive flood, and the slightly off-center feeling is only amplified when Maurice Chevalier starts to sing about their troubles! Any credibility or tenacity on the part of the viewer is thrown out the window when after all this, Chevalier suddenly realizes that they have traced the note to the wrong part of the world ---- negating everything that has happened up to that point.

Castaways is all form and no substance; this is not to say that the various elements don't work, just that they don't work together. There is puppy-love romance between Hayley Mills and Michael Anderson, Jr., scene-stealing and buoyant songs from Maurice Chevalier, bumbling comedy relief from Wilfrid Hyde-White ---- but it never meshes.

The effects themselves range from very good, in the case of some complicated ones like the flood, to unconvincing, as in the sledding sequence, which does take the party through a dazzling ice cavern. A major handicap is the heavy reliance on obviously indoor sets and substandard matte work, as when the party is climbing up the mountain ledges on mules.

Bosley Crowther in the New York Times said the film was "good for children of all ages---between 6--12, that is. . . It is, as we say, a whopping fable, more gimmicky than imaginative, but it doesn't lack for lively melodrama that is more innocent and wholesome than much of the stuff the children see these days on television."

Yet, considering what the Disney studio was capable of, In Search of the Castaways must be rated a disappointment.

Note from me: Ouch!

[Bud Brewster]

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To some degree I concur with the above comments. The movie was made because of Swiss Family Robinson's success, but Castaways just doesn't have the same cinematic charm.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

I enjoy Mr. Maltin's writing and work. However, I feel he is way too hard on this delightful film.

I'm unsure as to why he finds a "total lack of rhyme or reason" to the movie. The searchers are on a quest to locate the missing Captain Grant and along the way they encounter thrilling obstacles. This film was hardly intended to be based upon a true life story. It's a large-scale, exciting adventure that is meant to entertain audiences.

"There seems to be no earthly purpose for throwing in a giant condor or a massive flood", Maltin writes.

Really? These are breathtaking perils that threaten our protagonists in there search. Was the movie supposed to be a realistic documentary-style production? No, it was a fun ride that Disney took the audience on. Do we want to see a safe trek with no threats to our heroes and how they rise up to the challenges?

Of course not, that would make for a boring trip. And these scenes (along with the ride through the ice cavern) provide visual thrills.

"Any credibility or tenacity on the part of the viewer is thrown out the window when after all this, Chevalier suddenly realizes that they have traced the note to the wrong part of the world — negating everything that has happened up to that point," according to Maltin.

My take is entirely different on the situation.

Look, most epic quests have the heroes proceeding in the correct direction to their ultimate destination. They encounter threats and challenges along the way, but the way they are going is the way they should be proceeding.

In Castaways, our searchers must face the heartbreaking realization that, through no fault of their own, they embarked on the wrong destination. This was after facing the grueling journey that has been fraught with danger.

Is there anything worse than discovering you have gone through jeopardy, only to be in the wrong place? Some would want to throw in the towel rather than start all over again, but that not what the searchers decide to do. This plot development shows their resolve and garners audience sympathy. It also is atypical of adventure movies involving some kind of trek — which makes it original.

No one is claiming that Castaways is the greatest & grandest of all adventure films ever produced. It isn't going to win any Academy Awards. What it does it provide a fu and family entertainment with some marvelous visual effects, exciting stunts, a likable cast that you root for, and a happy ending.

Works for me.

[Bud Brewster]

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Pow, I agree totally with your rebuttal of Maltin's criticisms of Castaways. It does what it was meant to do, and I enjoyed it tremendously when I saw it in theaters back when it was first released.

Admittedly, I prefer Swiss Family Robinson, but your review above clearly demonstrates that the two movies had different goals, so making a direct comparison is not a fair way to judge Castaways.

Thanks for sharing such a fine review.

Archive.org has a 1.9 GB download available! Say the word and we can watch it together in the All Sci-Fi's Chatzy Room (< — LINK)! .

https://ia802600.us.archive.org/24/items/summer-magic.-1963/In%20Search%20of%20the%20Castaways%20%281962%29.mp4
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)