Cinema: Highland Fling

KIDNAPPED

Directed by DELBERT MANN Screenplay by JACK PULMAN

The lad is kidnapped, shipwrecked and left to fend for himself out in the Scottish highlands with only his newfound friend, bonnie Alan Breck (Michael Caine) to defend him. David Balfour (Lawrence Douglas) has, in short, the kind of adventures that turn boys into men and classic books into movies. Any further resemblance to Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel, however, is practically coincidental, and indeed nearly slanderous.

Unfortunately, the characters in the movie spend a dispiriting amount of time hanging around castles, gobbling porridge and mumbling about Culloden and dark days for Scotland. Even the action sequences generate little more excitement than a Frisbee tournament. When he doesn’t know what else to do —which seems to be most of the time —Director Mann throws in a lingering shot of the distant lochs or the heather on the hill.

The only good news is Michael Caine, who is fast, wry and totally engaging as the rebel Breck. Despite a tendency to get a little out of breath in the strenuous scenes, Caine might even make a worthy successor to Errol Flynn.