Arthur Ransome's much loved children's' book is brought to the screen in this faithful, albeit rather inconsequential, film from Claude Whatham. The book is a gentle tale about vacationing children in 1920s Lake District who make camp on an island in the lake beside their holiday home, and spend the entire summer getting in and out of adventures along the water. The biggest drawback in the book is the lack of real conflict among the characters. Everyone gets along absurdly well, Coral Island-style, and the book cries out for some fire and spice to stir things up a bit. However, Ransome overcomes this problem with his engaging writing style and his loving attention to local detail. The same cannot be said of the film which, stripped of Ransome's evocative prose, ends up being merely pleasant and genteel for its entire duration. Not that it's unwatchable or anything, and there are definitely sufficient points of interest to warrant a look.
Four young children – John (Simon West), Susan (Suzanna Hamilton), Titty (Sophie Neville) and Roger (Stephen Grendon) – arrive in the Lake District with their mother (Virginia McKenna) for a summer break. Their father, a sea captain, is away on a voyage at the other side of the world. Their holiday home is right beside a long lake and the children immediately find their attention drawn to a large uninhabited island in the middle. They are allowed to use a small wooden sailing boat, the Swallow, to explore the lake and the island, and soon they come up with the idea of setting up a camp on the island. Two other girls, Peggy (Lesley Bennett) and Nancy (Kit Seymour) – a.k.a The Amazons – arrive on the scene and challenge the Swallows to a test of courage and cunning to decide the true masters of the lake.
Swallows And Amazons, like any family film peopled by kiddie characters, relies on its child cast to hold things together. In this case, most of the children are rather wooden and struggle to create convincing characters. Grendon as Roger is particularly weak and turns one of the best characters from the book into an irritating buffoon, while Seymour is far too old and far too girly for the part of Nancy. There's not enough help from the adults either, with Ronald Fraser embarrassing himself quite dreadfully as Captain Flint. On a positive note, the film manages to capture the spirit of adventure and exploration rather nicely, and is a treat to look at throughout. Individual scenes work quite well, such as the bit with the charcoal burners, and the night-time sortie in which the Swallows attempt to steal the Amazons' boat. Overall, this is a fair-to-middling adaptation of the book – a nice, undemanding 92 minutes if you're in the right frame of mind.
Four young children – John (Simon West), Susan (Suzanna Hamilton), Titty (Sophie Neville) and Roger (Stephen Grendon) – arrive in the Lake District with their mother (Virginia McKenna) for a summer break. Their father, a sea captain, is away on a voyage at the other side of the world. Their holiday home is right beside a long lake and the children immediately find their attention drawn to a large uninhabited island in the middle. They are allowed to use a small wooden sailing boat, the Swallow, to explore the lake and the island, and soon they come up with the idea of setting up a camp on the island. Two other girls, Peggy (Lesley Bennett) and Nancy (Kit Seymour) – a.k.a The Amazons – arrive on the scene and challenge the Swallows to a test of courage and cunning to decide the true masters of the lake.
Swallows And Amazons, like any family film peopled by kiddie characters, relies on its child cast to hold things together. In this case, most of the children are rather wooden and struggle to create convincing characters. Grendon as Roger is particularly weak and turns one of the best characters from the book into an irritating buffoon, while Seymour is far too old and far too girly for the part of Nancy. There's not enough help from the adults either, with Ronald Fraser embarrassing himself quite dreadfully as Captain Flint. On a positive note, the film manages to capture the spirit of adventure and exploration rather nicely, and is a treat to look at throughout. Individual scenes work quite well, such as the bit with the charcoal burners, and the night-time sortie in which the Swallows attempt to steal the Amazons' boat. Overall, this is a fair-to-middling adaptation of the book – a nice, undemanding 92 minutes if you're in the right frame of mind.