The Admirable Crichton

The 1957 version of the classic J.M. Barrie play -- yes, he wrote something besides Peter Pan -- benefits from its opening up, with a lot of shooting in Bermuda. Kenneth More is the butler who, when the yacht sinks, becomes the leader of the aristos by dint of his understanding that work must be done and how to do it; by the time they are unwillingly rescued, he's got the island organized and built up like a Buster Keaton set.

Cecil Parker plays his fuddy-duddy upper-class twit, but here clearly takes pleasure in playing against type in the scenes where he's Kenneth More's manservant. I thought it a bit odd that Diane Cilento played 'Tweenie' and Sally Ann Howes Parker's daughter; were I casting it, I would have switched those roles. Both ladies acquit themselves well. Martitia Hunt has a great small role as Lady Bracknell..... I mean Lady Brocklehurst.