Based on the Robert Louis Stevenson novel, the 1948 film adaptation was financed by the low budget Monogram studio. It starred Roddy McDowall who later became famous for his role as Clarence in the Planet of the Apes series in the 60s and 70s. McDowall plays the 17 year old Scot, David Balfour, who is given a letter written by his recently deceased father to present to his uncle Ebenezer, a mean-spirited curmudgeon, who spends his days holed up in a large ramshackle house which features an unfinished staircase. Once David arrives at the house, the vile uncle sends him up the staircase to retire for the night, intending to murder his nephew expecting him to fall to the abyss below. Fortunately David (while inching his way up the unlit staircase), manages to avoid falling to his death.
So right away Kidnapped seems interesting as we have this crazed uncle who will do anything not to have the inheritance of his estate fall to his nephew (as it turns out David's father was older than Ebenezer-a dispute over a woman led to an informal agreement between the brothers that David's father would marry the woman and Ebenezer keep the house). Ebenezer now admits that David is heir to the estate but remains undeterred in preventing David from taking possession of the house and his money, so he employs Captain Hoseason (Roland Winters) to kidnap him and ferry him across the Atlantic in his ship, where he'll be sold as a slave in the Carolinas.
Hoseason's ship rams a small boat which leads to Alan Breck (Dan O'Herlihy), a fugitive wanted by the English crown, getting on board and attempting to make a deal with Hoseason to take him to France, where the French government is supporting the secessionist Jacobite movement which Breck is a member of). The Jacobites swear allegiance to Charles Edward Stuart, the son of the Catholic King James II, who was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 by Charles's half-sister Mary II and her husband, William III, both Protestants. Charles led a revolt in Scotland beginning in 1745.
Breck's deal with the Captain never materializes and David gets wind that the Captain and main mate are planning to kill Breck and take his money. David informs Breck about the Captain's designs, and the two, outnumbered about eight to one, manage to stave off defeat by some unrealistic sword fights and use of firearms that David conveniently has access to.
Eventually they're forced overboard where David and Breck are separated. The rest of the second Act involves the two being reunited, after Breck kills "The Red Fox," the king's enforcer agent, regarded as a terrorist by the largely sympathetic Jacobite-leaning Scottish population. David, however, remains loyal to the English king, and he and Breck are often at odds on political views which gives the narrative a bit of historical verisimilitude. The duo is joined by an innkeeper's daughter, Aileen (Sue England), who--despite being a Jacobite sympathizer--falls in love with the headstrong and idealistic David (the film provides the innkeeper's daughter a much bigger role than featured in the Stevenson novel).
There are some encounters with soldiers and more derring-do including more silly sword fighting, in which David becomes proficient after being tutored by Breck. Eventually the three make their way back home where they conscript a lawyer as a witness to Ebenezer's crime in having David kidnapped and attempting to defraud him of his inheritance.
The climax ends rather surprisingly with Ebenezer and Hoseason getting into a sword fight and both falling to their deaths into the abyss, off the unfished staircase. It was a little bit of a disappointing finish as the bad guys were so easily dispatched.
Kidnapped is a reasonable adaptation of a classic novel with performances that seem credible enough despite all the hokey swordfights. Next stop for me is the 1960 Disney film adaptation. We'll have to see how that one measures up to this low-budget entry.
