Don't get me wrong, I actually enjoyed this movie, though not as much as I did in 1964 when I was a freshly minted teenager, and a devotee of Mary Stewart's novels about plucky young women in exotic adventures. Unfortunately, the best adjective to apply to the movie is perfunctory. Or maybe just plain sloppy.
It's a formula chick flick, which is fine if it's done well, as plenty are. But Hayley Mills was still too juvenile at 17 to portray Nicky Ferris. She's a fledgling girl compared to the 23-year-old British stage actor Peter McEnery, who plays Mark Canford, her love interest.
The film was shot on Crete, where the story is set (as was the novel, which is rather eviscerated in this screenplay). Crete is a striking island, though there is no particular attempt to showcase its scenic beauty. More footage is devoted to Greek cultural customs- - a wedding, a carnival. But this movie is all plot, which is rather a strange thing, because it's a sketchy plot yet it drives all the action. The dialog is mostly functional, with very few attempts at wit, let alone wisdom. Typical of Disney of this period, the sterling supporting cast is comprised of strong character actors, European actors, and Hollywood has-beens-- Eli Wallach as the bad guy, Irene Papas as his rightly censorious sister (far too little of that divine actress), Joan Greenwood as Hayley's aunt, John Le Meseurier as the British consul and the RADA actress Sheila Hancock as his wife, and the silent film siren Pola Negri in her final film role as a jewel-obsessed dowager with a yacht and a pet leopard.
If the plot weren't so tedious, perhaps the sloppiness of the film wouldn't be so troublesome. But there is ample time for viewers to be disappointed by the needless continuity mistakes, three of which are positively risible:
1) The hero, Mark, suffers a gunshot wound in his arm (deltoid muscle, I think) early on, but he proceeds through the rest of the film vigorously using both arms as if nothing is wrong, except for when he's being bandaged or when he offers an occasional wince to remind us why there's a red stain is on his shirt.
2) In one scene, we start after nightfall when Nicky's aunt returns to the hotel, frantic that her niece has been missing all day. But when we cut to find Nicky, who was tied up and trapped in a windmill by evil Eli earlier, it's still daylight. There's plenty of blue sky and sunlight to illuminate her as she screams at the sight of a rat, a scream that brings rescuers.
3) The chase scene with a motorboat trying to catch up to a yacht is preposterous. Nicky is near the harbor when first sees the yacht, which seems to be serenely anchored. She steals the motorboat and sequence of shots, she's in hot pursuit, bouncing along the waves in the open sea, after a boat steaming full-speed-ahead.
The whole plot is wrapped up in short order once the police arrive on the yacht, and the movie predictably ends with an allusion to a possible wedding for Nicky and Mark. The only grounds for this ending is adherence to Disney formula because, although the two of them were thrown together in the headlong action, there's no evidence of attraction between them, no heat, not even much warmth. Nor do they have chemistry, not even in the famous kiss which is over with in a hurry, even though "Hayley's first screen kiss!" was marketed like "Garbo laughs!"
To mature eyes, Nicky is an intelligent but heedless teenager, while Mark is a mature young man on a mission to clear his name (he was accused of jewel theft). There's no romance here, or intimacy, only an anemic sort of courtship. I did enjoy the movie-- Crete, the actors- - but oh! how much better it might have been!
It's a formula chick flick, which is fine if it's done well, as plenty are. But Hayley Mills was still too juvenile at 17 to portray Nicky Ferris. She's a fledgling girl compared to the 23-year-old British stage actor Peter McEnery, who plays Mark Canford, her love interest.
The film was shot on Crete, where the story is set (as was the novel, which is rather eviscerated in this screenplay). Crete is a striking island, though there is no particular attempt to showcase its scenic beauty. More footage is devoted to Greek cultural customs- - a wedding, a carnival. But this movie is all plot, which is rather a strange thing, because it's a sketchy plot yet it drives all the action. The dialog is mostly functional, with very few attempts at wit, let alone wisdom. Typical of Disney of this period, the sterling supporting cast is comprised of strong character actors, European actors, and Hollywood has-beens-- Eli Wallach as the bad guy, Irene Papas as his rightly censorious sister (far too little of that divine actress), Joan Greenwood as Hayley's aunt, John Le Meseurier as the British consul and the RADA actress Sheila Hancock as his wife, and the silent film siren Pola Negri in her final film role as a jewel-obsessed dowager with a yacht and a pet leopard.
If the plot weren't so tedious, perhaps the sloppiness of the film wouldn't be so troublesome. But there is ample time for viewers to be disappointed by the needless continuity mistakes, three of which are positively risible:
1) The hero, Mark, suffers a gunshot wound in his arm (deltoid muscle, I think) early on, but he proceeds through the rest of the film vigorously using both arms as if nothing is wrong, except for when he's being bandaged or when he offers an occasional wince to remind us why there's a red stain is on his shirt.
2) In one scene, we start after nightfall when Nicky's aunt returns to the hotel, frantic that her niece has been missing all day. But when we cut to find Nicky, who was tied up and trapped in a windmill by evil Eli earlier, it's still daylight. There's plenty of blue sky and sunlight to illuminate her as she screams at the sight of a rat, a scream that brings rescuers.
3) The chase scene with a motorboat trying to catch up to a yacht is preposterous. Nicky is near the harbor when first sees the yacht, which seems to be serenely anchored. She steals the motorboat and sequence of shots, she's in hot pursuit, bouncing along the waves in the open sea, after a boat steaming full-speed-ahead.
The whole plot is wrapped up in short order once the police arrive on the yacht, and the movie predictably ends with an allusion to a possible wedding for Nicky and Mark. The only grounds for this ending is adherence to Disney formula because, although the two of them were thrown together in the headlong action, there's no evidence of attraction between them, no heat, not even much warmth. Nor do they have chemistry, not even in the famous kiss which is over with in a hurry, even though "Hayley's first screen kiss!" was marketed like "Garbo laughs!"
To mature eyes, Nicky is an intelligent but heedless teenager, while Mark is a mature young man on a mission to clear his name (he was accused of jewel theft). There's no romance here, or intimacy, only an anemic sort of courtship. I did enjoy the movie-- Crete, the actors- - but oh! how much better it might have been!