Maurice Chevalier : In Search Of The Castaways

Original Release: 1962  DVD Released: 5/2005

Genre: Children's/Family

DVD Coded for Region: 1 (assumed)

Sound options: Dolby Digital Monaural

This DVD Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1

Studio: Walt Disney Video

MPAA Rated: G

Length: 98

Category: Features

The All Music Guide rating for this work on a 1-9 scale (9=best) is 5

Based on Jules Verne 's novel Captain Grant's Children , In Search of the Castaways is a roller-coaster of a Disney film, making up in excitement what it lacks in credibility or coherence. Hayley Mills and Keith Hamshere play the children of long-missing ship's captain Jack Gwillim . By chance, a note stuffed in a bottle comes to the attention of the kids and professor Maurice Chevalier ; the note contains the fragment of a map, which suggests that Gwillim is somewhere in South America. Only after enduring a series of life-threatening adventures do Chevalier and the kids discover that they should have been in Australia all along! Once they're finally in the correct corner of the world, our protagonists are bedeviled by gunrunner George Sanders , the fellow who'd set the captain adrift. With the help of Wilfrid Brambell , a looney ex-crew member of the captain's (and the fellow who sent the bottled message), Chevalier , Mills and Hamshere are finally reunited with Gwillim --and as a bonus, Mills has found a boy friend, in the person of Michael Anderson . It's typical of the crazy-quilt approach taken by In Search of the Castaways that Maurice Chevalier decides to sing a cheery song in a moment of dire peril. Even so, the film was ideal Saturday-matinee fodder for the kiddie trade in 1963. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The opening credits of In Search of the Castaways tell the audience that this is a ' fantasy adventure ,' and that turns out to be pretty accurate. The fantasy label at least prepares the viewer for some of the larger credibility gaps that pop up along the way. Those that deal with plot points (e.g., the unbelievably fortunate timing of a waterspout that douses a deadly fire, the ability of one character to immediately determine how to make a volcano erupt) are somehow more palatable than the ridiculously carefree manner with which the characters greet such dangerous situations as an earthquake atop a mountain ledge or the resulting slide down an icy slope. Fortunately, the film has some genuine thrills that more than make up for the silliness (and cutesiness) that runs through the script. The quality of the special effects is variable; there are some very poor matte shots involving various people running from one disaster or another, but there are also some quite convincing (and at times breath taking) effects. Castaways has a lovely cast, with Hayley Mills in fine form, whether falling in love or falling down a slope. If Maurice Chevalier and Wilfrid Hyde-White go over the top, they still have charm, and George Sanders ' understatement counteracts them nicely. In smaller roles, Antonio Cifariello and Wilfrid Brambell make strong impressions as a stolid Indian and a not-so-crazy lunatic. Advances in screen technology may have reduced Castaways ' impact, but most children will still find it entertaining -- as will those parents willing to meet it halfway. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide