Swiss Family Robinson
Background Information: Swiss Family Robinson [Top] The 1960 Disney film Swiss Family Robinson is one of many movies & parodies based on the novel The Swiss Family Robinson. // Note. the tiger has shown up more times than the other animal run-ins. One, tries to attack Rocky the Elephant & Francis, but theyre rescued by Duke & Turk the dogs who than proceed to fighting the tiger before it had a chance to take off again. Second, Francis planned to have the tiger fall into a pit for the pirates & it worked. One of Disneys Top-Grossing Films Swiss Family Robinson at the Internet Movie Database. Swiss Family Robinson at Rotten Tomatoes.
Editorial DVD Review [Top] The Disney touch is all over this grand, colourful version of the Johann Wyss adventure of a European family setting off for the new world of New Guinea. The film opens on a ship jostled & torn by a raging storm while a family struggles to make it through alive. Tossed into a reef near a deserted tropical island, father John Mills takes charge & the family soon turns their island prison into a veritable paradise. Their multi-level tree house, built in record time, is complete with running water & a working pipe organ scavenged from the ship, while their grand yard is abloom in English roses. As a tale of hardship & pioneer pluck its pure fantasy, but as entertainment its energetic & appealing. The island is impossibly populated by ostriches, zebras, lions & elephants, a private zoo that delights the youngest boy & offers plenty of comic relief. The two older brothers discover even wilder life when they rescue the prisoner of oriental pirates . Theres little real danger anywhere in the film: even the climactic battle with the pirates is a cartoonish affair, with coconut bombs & non-lethal booby traps, until the final desperate, deadly moments. Hardly a faithful adaptation of the novel, but a lush, beautifully shot film & an entertaining adventure safe for all ages. Dorothy McGuire co-stars as the proper, worry-prone mother.
Biography: Dorothy McGuire [Top] Dorothy Hackett McGuire was an American actress. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, she began her career on the stage. Her first film was Claudia, in which she played the character she had originated on Broadway, that of a child bride who almost destroys her marriage through her selfishness. By 1943, at the age of 27, she was already playing mother roles, in such movies as A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1947 for Gentlemans Agreement. She appeared in such other movies as Three Coins in the Fountain, Friendly Persuasion, Old Yeller, Swiss Family Robinson, Summer Magic & The Greatest Story Ever Told. McGuire has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6933 Hollywood Blvd.
Posters Of Old YellerEditors Choice: Flight Of The Doves, Swiss Family Robinson, Old Yeller, Three Coins In The Fountain, Gentlemans Agreement, The Spiral Staircase, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, View DVDology Biography: John Mills [Top] Sir John Mills is a British actor. Born John Lewis Ernest Watts Mills in Felixstowe, Suffolk, he took an early interest in acting, making his professional debut at the London Hippodrome in 1927. Mills made his film debut in The Midshipmaid & came to prominence as Colley in the 1939 film version of Goodbye, Mr Chips, opposite Robert Donat. He took the lead in Great Expectations in 1936 & subsequently made his career playing traditionally British heroes such as Sir Robert Falcon Scott in Scott of the Antarctic. In 1941, he married the dramatist, Mary Hayley Bell & their two daughters, Juliet & Hayley, are both actresses. For his role as the village idiot in Ryans Daughter - a complete departure from his usual style - Mills won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Altogether he appeared in over a hundred films. In 1976, he was knighted. In recent years, he has appeared on television only on special occasions. His most famous television role is probably as the title character in Quatermass for ITV in 1979.
Posters Of Ice Cold In AlexEditors Choice: Cats, Mary Wesleys Harnessing Peacocks, Swiss Family Robinson, Tiger Bay, Dunkirk, Ice Cold In Alex, Above Us The Waves, The Colditz Story, View DVDology Biography: Ken Annakin [Top] Ken Annakin is a British film director. His career in films followed his work experience in documentaries. He made his directing debut in 1947 at the Rank studios. Annakin became known for a series of Walt Disney adventures including The Story of Robin Hood, The Sword & the Rose & The Swiss Family Robinson. He was later associated with another American producer Darryl F Zanuck when he was hired to direct the British segments in The Longest Day. As head of the 20th Century-Fox Studio, Zanuck endorsed Annakins most ambitious project Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. He also directed the big-scale war movie Battle of the Bulge for the Warner Brothers studio. However, some of Annakins better received films are smaller-scale comedies & dramas, including his episodes in Quartet & Trio, based on Somerset Maughams stories, Hotel Sahara, Across the Bridge, Crooks Anonymous, The Fast Lady & The Informers. In 2002, Annakin was honoured by Queen Elizabeth with an appointment to the OBE.
Posters Of The Longest DayEditors Choice: The Pirate Movie, The Call Of The Wild, The Longest Day, Swiss Family Robinson, The Fast Lady, Across The Bridge, Call Of The Wild, View DVDology Additional Articles & Resources: [Top] Ken Annakin: | Wikipedia Article * |
John Mills: | Wikipedia Article * | Dorothy McGuire: | Wikipedia Article * | Swiss Family Robinson: | Wikipedia Article * | Link To This Article: [Top] ©2004-2008 DVDArk.co.uk * Some data on DVD Ark is derived from this GNU FDL article.
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