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Product Description
Rudyard Kipling's 1901 tale of the horse trader and secret agent who introduces young Kim to the dangerous ways of espionage in 19th-century India.
Product Description
DVD
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
In the product details, on Amazon, were mentioned "English subtitles", but that's NOT true. No subtitles at all on the films. This is unfair and uncorrect.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
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
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
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Although it's never had the reputation as a classic either as an Errol Flynn film or a Rudyard Kipling adaptation, MGM's lavish 1950 adaptation of Kim is a really rather splendid affair, with the star still on good form before his wicked ways took their toll on his health and providing charismatic star power as the mysterious red bearded horse trader Mabub Ali to back up a very impressive Dean Stockwell in the title role as the `little friend of all the world,' an orphaned white boy passing for Indian who gets caught up in `The Great Game' between the fledgling British and Russian intelligence networks. MGM had originally intended it as a Freddie Bartholomew vehicle back in 1938 before an escalating budget, the disappointing box-office for RKO's Gunga Din and the war put it on the backburner, and the wait probably did the project the world of good, allowing them to film on location in the newly independent India - the first major studio picture to do so - and in Glorious Technicolor too. Victor Saville's direction effectively catches the tone of child-like adventure in a duplicitous world and Leon Gordon, Helen Deutsch and Richard Schayer's script does a good job of mixing the alternately antiquated and earthy (well, as earthy as the 1950 censors would allow) dialogue without seeming too stilted even if they do take more than a few liberties with Kipling's plot. There's an impressive supporting cast, too: Paul Lukas cuts a benign figure as the Lama Kim befriends, Arnold Moss makes use of his wonderfully smoothly sinister voice on the side of the angels for once while Robert Douglas also makes the most of a rare good guy role, Thomas Gomez delivers some good last minute villainy and Cecil Kellaway pops up intermittently as the marvellously named spy Hurree Chunder. As colonial adventures go, it's certainly one of the best.
Unfortunately the only UK PAL DVD available at the moment is Public Domain release with less than dazzling picture quality, so it's worth picking up Warner Home Video's US NTSC DVD, which boasts better picture quality and also includes the original trailer and a couple of vintage travelogs as extras
Unfortunately the only UK PAL DVD available at the moment is Public Domain release with less than dazzling picture quality, so it's worth picking up Warner Home Video's US NTSC DVD, which boasts better picture quality and also includes the original trailer and a couple of vintage travelogs as extras
Most Recent Customer Reviews
so many peoples!
The dvd contains a wide sample of the scenes and themes of the original book. The colour and variety of the raj come through well. Read more
Published 19 days ago by wesbooks
true classic
This will always be a classic film! The combination of Errol Flynn and young Kim is just superb. I find more and more that older films have so much more in the way of story and... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Bigcat
The perfect present!
Bought for a colleage as a secret santa , who had been moaning he had missed this classic on TV. Great quality, well packaged :0)
Published 17 months ago by Ms. M. Blane
The adventure begins
A great tale of loyalty and spies. With renewed interest in the region where this film takes place it is interesting to see that not much has changed. Read more
Published on 30 April 2010 by bernie
Kim
[This is a Rudyard Kipling tale of adventure set in India of the Raj, it is a action film about a young boy and the british empire!!! Read more
Published on 2 April 2010 by Ann Winfield
epic
An epic film, epic story. Kipling at his best.
Dont expect pc, but do expect a good yarn.
In my top 10.
Dont expect pc, but do expect a good yarn.
In my top 10.
Published on 8 Feb 2010 by Mr. A. J. Cordell
Much to be desired
This film appears to be infrequently similar to the book by Kipling! The main characters are particularly at variance with the originals. Read more
Published on 8 Feb 2010 by Dr. Roderick Deeming
Elements of Colonialism
Whilst there is little doubt the film is a fine example of its genre, it now comes across as intensely patronising. Read more
Published on 24 July 2009 by P. Rowley-brooke
Kim - one of the best movies ever made
My wife and I are senior citizens and enjoy good movies - both old and new, attending a movie about every two weeks and hire the occasional DVD. Read more
Published on 25 May 2009 by Hugh V
Kim
A timeless classic brought to the 'silver screen'. Errol at his charming deadliest: should he have shot the baddies, or his make-up artist? A close call.
Published on 9 Jan 2009 by Aquinas
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