June 27 - Kidnapped

Today’s movie is an action adventure film with a scene that happens on June 27. Watch it tonight and enjoy.  

KIDNAPPED        

Alan Breck Stuart returns to Scotland from exile in France to collect funds raised secretly to support “Bonnie’ Prince Charlie. David Balfour leaves his home village after his father’s death for the House of Shaws with a letter of introduction from his dead father. Alan meets with Colin Campbell, who is George II’s factor in Scotland, who tells him that if Alan will switch sides, Campbell will restore their land to all former Jacobite supporters. Alan refuses and escapes from the trap Mr. Reed, an English agent had set for him. David arrives at Shaws, a run down house and meets his Uncle Ebenezer. David is suspicious of his uncle and fortunately his uncle’s attempt to arrange a fatal “accident” for David fails.  David and his uncle go to the port of Glasgow and meet the Captain of a brig. David learns by a chance meeting that his father was the oldest son and the Shaws actually belongs to him.  David is kidnapped by the crew of the ship and he learns he is to be taken to South Carolina and sold as an indentured servant. Alan has evaded the English and rows out to meet a French ship but in the fog comes upon the ship David is on. The Captain agrees to take Alan back to where he started, but not to France. The crew plot to kill Alan for the money he is carrying, but when the Captain asks David to assist him in killing Alan, David joins with him instead and together they fight off the crew, killing several. The captain agrees to put them ashore and Alan gives David the money to hold.  When the ship comes close to land in a storm, it is wrecked and David and Alan are washed over board on June 27, 1751. [1:01:42 to 1:10:20] David starts looking for Alan to give him back the money. David meets Colin Campbell and Mr. Reed. Colin Campbell is shot by an unseen rifleman.  Alan finds the murderer’s gun. The authorities are going to arrest David as an accomplice, but Alan rescues him David thinks Alan killed Campbell in cold blood, so he gives him the money and leaves. David is caught by the English, but rescued by Alan, who convinces him he is innocent of Campbell’s murder. David and Alan go to see Alan’s brother James, who he tries unsuccessfully to persuade to flee, as Alan is sure the English will come to arrest him, as James hated Campbell for driving him off his land. They disarm the first group of soldiers who come to arrest James, but a second larger group burns the houses and arrests James. Alan sets out to find the real killer. Alan and David visit the gunsmith who made the rifle that killed Campbell and learn its purchaser was a McDonald. They visit the Earl of Dunbrae, head of Clan McDonald and convince him to give them the name and location of the killer. They find him, but so do the English troops, who arrest Alan and Reed kills the murderer, who he had paid to kill Campbell, so he could use the murder as an excuse to get rid of Alan and his brother. James is hung, but at the hanging David frees Alan. Alan and David head for the House of Shaws. They are almost surrounded and captured, but Mary granddaughter of the Earl of Dunbrae, who has taken a liking to David, convinces him to hide Alan and David in their coach, so they escape the trap. David learns from the family lawyer that he does own the House of Shaws. Both brothers loved the same woman so in a deal the elder got the girl, while the younger got the income from the estates for the elder’s lifetime. The place was titled so it could not be sold but had to pass automatically from father to eldest son. Alan, David, the lawyer and a magistrate go to the House of Shaws and Alan tricks Ebenezer into confessing that he arranged to have David kidnapped. David gets the house and all the funds his uncle has saved from the rents. It is implied that David marries Mary and Alan returns to France.

                       

A rousing good adventure story.Actually has a plot where people act the way they do for a reason. Keeps you interested. This version sticks closest to the book.

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson (Running Press, Philadelphia, PA, 1989) at page 260 gives the date of the shipwreck.

Producer - John Davis

Director - Ivan Passer

Screenplay - John Goldsmith, Michael Barlow & Rob Hedden

Running time - 3 hours

Released - November 5, 1995

Starring -

Armand Assante as Alan Breck Stuart

Brian Blessed as Cluny McPherson

Brian McCardie as David Balfour

Patrick Malahide as Ebenezer Balfour

Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2015.