russellalancampbell
This film never fails to interest and please me no matter how many times I see it. Flynn was in the last stages of his career but his sheer presence and his charm are undeniable. He was born to play costume roles, woo women, ride horses and, if necessary, kill baddies. Dean Stockwell was a brilliant child actor. He was engaging but never cute. As Kim he is resourceful and cheeky but he is never superior to the adult world. Stockwell's Kim is visibly upset by violence and death. He is vulnerable and at times requires adult help. He is a boy in an adult situation and the adults are mostly in control. "Kim" was made at a time when most children aspired to be of help to the adult world rather than be the center of proceedings. The film captures Kipling's India. It is perhaps a sanitised and romanticised picture with India's rich colour and variety, human and natural, to the fore rather than true pictures of its overwhelming poverty and the oppressive domination by the British Empire. On the contrary, the British troops are seen as the heroes in "Kim". However, the film is really about being young and caught up in an adventure. It is about the thrill of being young and mentored by people you look up to as Kim looks up to Mahbub Ali and to the old Tibetan Lama.They can't and won't make them like this any more. But the past is sometimes a nice place to visit from time to time on a weekend afternoon with "Kim".
Spikeopath
Out of MGM, Kim is directed by Victor Saville and adapted from the Rudyard Kipling novel by Helen Deutsch, Leon Gordon (producer as well) and Richard Schayer. It stars Errol Flynn, Dean Stockwell, Paul Lukas & Robert Douglas. It's shot in Technicolor by William V. Skall and André Previn provides the musical score. Locations for the shoot were Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, India, and some work was done at Alabama Hills near Lone Pine in California.It's all very colourful, with performances from the cast to match, and the photography is at times gorgeous, but excitement is sporadic and threaded together by long periods of tedium. The story is a good one, tho the political correctness brigade would like to see the film given a Viking burial. Set during the British Raj, it tells how a young orphan boy named Kim (Stockwell) had adventures whilst becoming a spy for the Empire. The people he meets, good and bad, and his involvement with a Russian plot to seize India. Stockwell does very well in the lead role, and Flynn offers up some flamboyance. But it's ultimately too long at nearly two hours because the narrative is far too episodic. 4/10
ma-cortes
This is a nice version of Rudyard Kipling's notorious India tale, adapted in Hollywood style by Victor Saville and set in 1880s. Along with ¨Courageous captains¨, ¨Jungle book¨, ¨The Elephant boy¨ are the Kipling's most known adaptations. Kim(Dean Stockwell) is 15-years old boy posing as vagrant native , but he's actually son of a English sergeant. He's living on his own resources when finds a monk Lama(Paul Lukas) , a holy man. Kim is looking for a red bull an the Buddhist Lama on search for a river where Budda hurled an arrow becoming itself a sacred place. Kim also befriends an Afgan horse dealer named Mahbub Ali (Errol Flynn) . Later on , Kim is trained by English secret service(Arnold Moss) as spy. Then Kim receives orders of a Brit colonel(Robert Douglas) for a daring mission.This rousing adventure film packs emotion, feats, thrills and agreeable performances. Stars Paul Lukas does a magnificent acting as spiritual monk but is Dean Stockwell as the rogue waif , in the title role, who steals show. Although relies heavily on the enjoyable relationship between the protagonists , nevertheless the film is very amusing, providing some intense action scenes and lots of excitement. Enthusiastic supporting cast from Robert Douglas, Cecil Kellaway, Thomas Gomez, Laurette Luez and Reginald Owen as Father Victor, among them. Glamorous cinematography in glimmer Technicolor by William L Skall . Filmed on location in Rajasthan,Agra(India) and US, as Lone Pine, Alabama Hills, Sierra Nevada mountains of California and with production design by prestigious Cedric Gibbons and Hans Peters. Stirring and exotic musical score by Andre Previn. The picture is flavorfully directed by Victor Saville. Rating : Good and nice, it's an exciting family fare. It's remade for TV(1984) in an inferior version directed by John Davies and starred by Peter O'Toole as Lama and Blayr Brown as Ali.
bkoganbing
I've always thought that Rudyard Kipling's Kim might very well have been influenced by Charles Dickens and his creation of those street urchins in London led by that young survivor, the Artful Dodger. Certainly Kim as portrayed by Dean Stockwell in this film is every bit as resourceful in his way as the Dodger is in Oliver Twist.The Dodger had the advantage of growing up poor, but growing up in his own culture in 19th century London. Kim is short for Kimball O'Hara who's growing up on the mean streets of India. Kim's dad was a British soldier and in this film, the mother who died in childbirth is also white. Kim learned the way to survive real fast.Which makes him of great use to British Intelligence ever worried in the 19th century about Russian designs on India. Of course what they were doing in India is a question not asked in these films. This is Dean Stockwell's film, maybe the best he did as a child actor. He's appealing as all get out in Kim. Adults like Errol Flynn as the horse trader Mahbub Ali who's really a British agent, Robert Douglas as the colonel in charge of British Intelligence, and Paul Lukas as the lama on pilgrimage who befriends young Kim are clearly in support of Stockwell.This is familiar territory for Flynn back in his salad days he had just such a role in The Prince and the Pauper supporting the Mauch twins as Miles Hendon. By the way you might get confused a bit when you hear Flynn's character referred by name in Kim. They pronounce it in the film as one word, Mahbubali. Flynn was loaned to MGM from Warner Brothers for That Forsyte Woman and a second film. He was given a choice of Kim or King Solomon's Mines, each film being shot on location in India and Africa respectively. Flynn opted for the Indian story although he got to Africa later in The Roots of Heaven.Kim is still a fine boy's adventure story, should appeal to the twelve year old boy in all of us.
AD
