Treasure of Matecumbe

Not a great deal more than a standard Disney yarn, to be sure: a chase down the Mississippi; two fearlessly resourceful schoolboys; man-eating mosquitoes, a spectacular hurricane; no sex, no serious injuries, and only one fatality. McEveety, having the measure of his duties, delivers the action with the minimum of fuss; and the plot, drawn from a novel by Pulitzer prizewinner Robert Lewis Taylor, bashes along at a cracking pace. Hackett, radiant and wet-lipped, offers an energetic character study of a sturdy Southern belle fleeing from a devilish Yankee suitor (the action takes place just after the Civil War); show-stealing honours, however, go to Ustinov as a loquacious quack pedlar whose foul medicine doubles, when the need arises, as the ingredients for Molotov cocktails. First-rate escapist nonsense.