Get 3 months of Audible free - Get this deal
Currently unavailable.
We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.

The Admirable Crichton

4.6 out of 5 stars 341 ratings

Product description

When a family of English aristocrats are marooned on a tropical isle, it soon becomes clear that only one of them is resourceful enough to ensure their survival-their butler, Crichton. Based on the 1902 Broadway play by James M. Barrie, this charming adaptation blends comedy and romance with a heavy dose of satire. A man and woman are on the VHS cover wearing tropical clothes.

Product details

  • Parcel Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 18.6 x 10.64 x 2.85 cm; 173.88 g
  • Director ‏ : ‎ Lewis Gilbert
  • Media Format ‏ : ‎ VHS
  • Run time ‏ : ‎ 93 minutes
  • Actors ‏ : ‎ Kenneth More, Diane Cilento,Cecil Parker, Sally Ann Howes, Marita Hunt and Peter Graves
  • Language ‏ : ‎ Unqualified
  • Studio ‏ : ‎ Columbia Pictures
  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000GQSFPU
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 out of 5 stars 341 ratings

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
341 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers
Write a customer review

Top reviews from Canada

  • Morrisey
    5.0 out of 5 stars It plays beautifully. Brings back happy memories
    Reviewed in Canada on October 19, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Arrived safely before time. It plays beautifully. Brings back happy memories.
    Helpful
     Report
  • Carol Lallone
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
    Reviewed in Canada on August 20, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Excellent condition and I am very happy with the DVD.
    Helpful
     Report
  • James T. Hunt
    1.0 out of 5 stars One Star
    Reviewed in Canada on March 5, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    This DVD has a MESSAGE THAT SAYS IT IS NOT AUTHORIZED FOR PLAYING IN THIS AREA.
    One person found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • 鶹 Customer
    1.0 out of 5 stars One Star
    Reviewed in Canada on April 18, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Could not play it in Canada
    One person found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
  • Mario Alfaro Rivera
    5.0 out of 5 stars Buen Recuerdo
    Reviewed in Spain on April 25, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Me costo un mundo encontrar esta película, es una pieza de teatro inglesa que siempre estuvo en cartelera, pero la pelicula es muy entretenida a pesar del tiempo que tiene no deja de ser interesante y muy buenas actuaciones.
    Recomendable 100%
    Report
  • PlayWizMe
    5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful film - like a mashup of "Downton Abbey" and "Gilligan's Island"
    Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    This is a wonderful version of James M. Barrie's play "The Admirable Crichton", the same Mr. Barrie most famous for writing Peter Pan. This adaptation of his stage play is about a wealthy British family with an upstairs/downstairs class system in place at the family estate. When a daughter is arrested as a suffragette, the ultimate butler and factotum Crichton suggests a family cruise to let the scandal subside over time. But a shipwreck happens, and on the island where they land, social roles are by necessity, quite different than in England. A terrific cast, headed by probably the most popular British male star of the time, Kenneth More as Crichton, has been assembled, with especially wonderful work by Diane Cilento as the endearing, delightful lower-class girl and Sally Ann Howes as the lovely, but snooty eldest daughter. Some of the ingenious devices the castaways implement on the island must have been copied by or at least inspired the producers of "Gilligan's Island". It's a very enjoyable, funny film which doubles as an adventure film as well as a comedy of manners and social graces.
    Report
  • Darth Maciek
    5.0 out of 5 stars A hilarious bittersweet satire about class divisions in Merry Old England – also, to some extent, a first draft of “Peter Pan”
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 23, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    I always loved this film and recently I was delighted to see that albeit made 58 years ago, it didn't age one little bit. Below, more of my impressions, with some LIMITED SPOILERS.

    Year of Grace 1905. William Crichton (Kenneth More) is the highly efficient butler in the London household of the Earl of Loam (Cecil Parker) and his family. The Earl considers himself a progressive and is against class divisions – Crichton on another hand is extremely class-conscious and conservative (in fact ultra-reactionary). The Earl has three grown up daughters and the oldest, Mary (Sally Ann Howes), is an incredible beauty – and as she is very conscious of this fact, the magnitude of her pride (arrogance) matches her looks. Soon after the film begins the Earl takes his family on a trip around the world on his yacht, but once they arrive to the South Seas the voyage is… interrupted… That will lead to quite a lot of interesting developments, which will also affect the class stratification – but for the sake of those who somehow managed to not know this story I will not say more.

    Written by J.M. Barrie in 1902 the theatre piece "Admirable Crichton" was an immediate and ENORMOUS success and by making the author largely known, it certainly helped a lot his next major opus, "Peter Pan", which became an even bigger sensation two years later. This film is a very faithful adaptation of the piece and is mostly based on splendid, witty dialogs.

    The casting is simply perfect and all actors did an amazing job. Kenneth More, who already completely stunned me by his incredible portrayal of Sir Douglas Bader in "Reach for the sky", plays here probably the second role of his life – he is simply PERFECT as Crichton. Veteran actor Cecil Parker is also great as Earl of Loam. Australian actress Diane Cilento, a girl with stunning legs who was going later to marry Sean Connery, plays marvellously the humble bumbling maid "Tweeny", a very endearing character. Another veteran of cinema and theatre, Martita Hunt, plays admirably Lady Brocklehurst – this last character is in fact a formidable female dragon rather than a woman…

    This film however would not be as good as it is without Sally Ann Howes, who belonged to the small minority of women so beautiful, that it actually hurts the eyes when you try to look at them – and she also surely knew how to play. Her character in this film, Mary, allowed her to show her talent in such a way that she is even hotter than her looks. This incredibly proud princess, who later becomes… well, another kind of proud princess, is the kind of woman for the possession of whom it is worth to fight to the last drop of blood. Conquering such a princess must feel like ravishing Artemis – and it would probably be worth it even if one had to be then savaged by his own bloodhounds... As for the loss of such a woman, well, the grief and pain must be indescribable and insufferable... Without this character and Sally Ann Howes to play her, this film wouldn't be as good as it is.

    This being a work of fiction, author had to take some liberties with reality, beginning with the portrayal of high born British people as hapless in difficult circumstances. I don’t really have the impression that such was really a case. British nobility, women and senior gentlemen very much included, proved to have real spine and darn tough hide in many a tough scrape, as well in colonial and overseas fighting (Indian Mutiny and Boxer Rebellion come immediately to mind) as during the terrible years of World War II. Young gentlemen were also quite roughly educated and treated in elite schools and me for one I somehow don’t really see Stalky, M’Turk or even bookish Beetle, once fully grown, being totally clueless in the wilderness... But this is a very minor point and of course without “licentia poetica” we would have no good stories at all.

    As already mentioned earlier the success of this film resides mostly in the incredibly witty dialogs, in fact a permanent verbal fencing between all the characters, but there are also other elements, which make it into something much, much more than just a hilarious comedy about poorly assorted people thrown together into an unusual situation. "Admirable Crichton" contains also some more serious things, which make it into a bittersweet treat – and in the process transform it into something more than just harmless entertainment.

    Both the piece and the film contain a reflexion on class divisions which is much deeper than one could expect from a comedy and it gives to the whole story a more serious, darker and sad element. The author was of course himself member of nobility and therefore his views were probably somehow biased, but I rather agree with his conclusion that classless society is not possible – sooner or later, even if you try to erase the differences by violence, some animals will always become more equal than others...

    Then there is also the fascination with the idea of return to a simpler, less "civilized" life, as answer to a certain fatigue most of us, urban citizens living in highly developped societies, develop regularly. Civilized life is indeed comfortable and safe, but it contains also elements of stress which wear us down and this is why we all need a vacation from time to time - and sometimes the temptation is great to simply drop it all and not return... In reality, the civilization fatigue rarely survives the first toothache and virtually never the first death of a woman in childbirth far from a modern hospital - but it certainly guarantees the success of well written stories, such as "Robinson Crusoe" and "Mysterious Island" (both predating "Admirable Crichton") or "Tarzan of the Apes", which would be published only ten years later.

    “Admirable Crichton” contains also many elements which J.M. Barrie continued to explore and developed later in “Peter Pan”. In both stories we have a group of characters who escape from the reality of life to spend a magic moment in an enchanted distant land, who remake there their life from scratch, live wonderful adventures and find happiness – but who cannot stay there indefinitely, because the real life calls them back. This return is painful and causes many tears to flow but it is nevertheless a good thing, because if the real world is a tough, even cruel place, it still has the advantage of being real... WARNING! WARNING! SOME SPOILERS AHEAD! This is why in both stories Wendy has to go her own way and the main hero must go back to Tinker Bell, the one girl who always faithfully loved him...

    Bottom line, this is an EXCELLENT film, an absolutely marvellous classic of humour, serious reflexion and romance, with an amazing performance by Kenneth More and one incredibly beautiful actress portraying an impressively proud and fierce princess. TO SEE ABSOLUTELY! ENJOY!
    Report
  • Andre Houben
    5.0 out of 5 stars Delivered within timeframe, no damage to item
    Reviewed in Australia on August 7, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    Bought on behalf of a parent
    Report
  • Andreas Heede
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastisch !!!
    Reviewed in Germany on January 10, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Großartiger Film und beste Qualität
    Report