Kim (1950)

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Director: Victor Saville
Starring: Errol Flynn, Dean Stockwell

A long-anticipated screen adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling adventure novel finally finds its way to the big screen in the 1950 MGM Technicolor feature Kim. A mix of coming-of-age story set in the far-off land of India during the romanticized British Empire colonialism age this picture was long thought to be a sure formula to attract going audiences, even through the years that hindered its production. Headlined by Hollywood’s tried and true adventure leading man, Erol Flynn, featuring the performance of rising MGM child star Dean Stockwell in the title role, and directed by Victor Saville, Kim was a film that even though had to wait many years to greenlight it was a lock at the box office while being one of the most anticipated movies of 1950.

 

Kim is an adventure picture of a British orphan boy in India that disguises himself as a local to find himself in a world of excitement. In British Empire controlled India the orphaned son of an English officer, Kim (Dean Stockwell), decides that rather than go to school it is more fun to disguise himself as a local and experience a variety of escapades while begging and swindling people to get by. Befriending the charming Mahbub Ali (Errol Flynn), a secret agent of the British Army, sets young Kim on a path that utilizes the boy a spy for army. To further disguise Kim to infiltrate a camp of local Indian rebels the youth is paired to travel with an unsuspecting elderly Buddhist lama (Paul Lukas) on a religious quest, becoming his disciple and caretaker along the way. Kim and Mahbub Ali work together to quell a ring of Russian spies and Indian uprisers the threaten the British while the lama passes away from injuries during the altercation while believing he reached his final holy destination. Through all this Kim finds purpose to life beyond mere reckless adventures.

 

A film that is rather jumbled in delivering a story about a boy’s adventures in the land of India, Kim may speak more to a generation that may be further aware of the original Kipling novel than discovering the film on its own. With a series of episodic mini adventure that stumble into a larger plot of a spies and an uprising against British Imperials the picture feels as if it speaks to a different generation and society than is exciting or acceptable today. Captured in the film is the romanticized view of British Imperialism and the far-off, near mystical land of India when the world was a much larger place. It is difficult to enjoy from a contemporary viewpoint how the world is viewed in the film, as well as the use of white actors working in brownface to depict Indians. Even though young Dean Stockwell performs a fine, somewhat mischievous title character, even the plot of his character painting his skin to fit in can be a bit off-putting, perhaps working better in the written word than watching poor representations of brownface on screen. Errol Flynn continues his on-screen masculine adventure persona despite looking a bit more run down than just a few short years before. The film is colorful and bright, utilizing footage shot on location in India, but is obvious that a great deal was shot stateside.

 

Long had MGM anticipated to produce the Rudyard Kipling novel of Kim to the movie screen. Born to a British family while living in India, Kipling penned many adventure novels that were inspired by his eastern knowledge and boyhood adventurous spirit including “The Jungle Book” and “Gunga Din.” MGM purchased rights to Kim with plans announced in 1938 to be a vehicle for then leading male child performer Freddie Bartholomew to star along with Robert Taylor, but plans were put on hold with rising international conflict that eventually resulted in WWII hindered MGM’s initially ideas. Kim reemerged at MGM in 1942 as a Mickey Rooney vehicle with Conrad Veidt and Basil Rathbone attached, but fear of offending Russian allies during the war once again put the picture away temporarily. In 1948 with WWII over, international markets once again opened, and Russians now being international enemies the plot of Kim was at an acceptable time for MGM to finally go forward with producing Kim.

 

Twelve-year-old Dean Stockwell was the then leading child actor for the studio, providing him the biggest role of his young life at the time in the title role. Errol Flynn chose his role in Kim over the leading character in another massive adventure picture for MGM, King Solomon’s Mine, but was still given top billing. It was simple choice for Flynn, deciding to work mainly in the states with a short excursion to India over living in a hot tent in Africa for a role that asked less of him, but paid him the same amount. There were worries that Errol Flynn was too old for his role as Mahbub Ali with Flynn being 40 at the time, and a much more weathered 40 at that, but his history in adventure features made him the attraction of the picture.

 

Flynn proved to be a bit of a problem on production, sometimes arriving late, unprepared, and/or inebriated from the previous night’s drinking as he was a known alcolholic. As the film’s headliner he was given his leeway and director Victor Saville was able to get the performance her needed out of Flynn, in his close ups at least. For Stockwell, Errol Flynn became somewhat of a mentor to the young actor, introducing him to many of the more adult things in life as Flynn flaunted stories of his personal escapades to the impressionable Stockwell. The child star took it all in good fun, learning many things about Hollywood social life from a man that done near everything during his career.

 

As mentioned, most of the picture was filmed in California either on the MGM lot or in rocky areas near Lone Pine, CA to stand in for the Indian wilderness. A stint of production was shot in India to capture the color of the local flavor and architecture delivering an authentic feel to the setting whne edited together with the stateside produced material. However, Dean Stockwell was avoided in being taken overseas, as all his material was produced in America using stand ins for him during the India portion of production.

 

Kim played to welcoming audiences when it premiered in December 1950 taking in generous box office numbers for MGM. It nearly did as well overseas as it did in the states, including being one of the most successful pictures in France through the year 1951 while being one of MGM’s top features that year in the states. It would mark the most profitable picture of Errol Flynn’s career, proving that Flynn had the drawing power for the film picture as it out drew King Solomon’s Mine. Critics were generally mixed to positive, yet the Flynn picture did nothing to gain the film critical notoriety.

 

With time Kim has not aged so gracefully with its use of white actors in ethnic roles, an issue that still plagues Hollywood feature to this day. The adventure of the story does not play out as exciting on the screen as it does on the page and with bigger production budgets experiences in the years since Kim lacks the draw it once held. Today it proves to be more of a film for its time than a timeless classic. Movie watchers can still find the picture today, but few find it as interesting as it once was to audiences. For Errol Flynn his career was begin to fluctuate downward in the coming years while Dean Stockwell would carry out a very long successful career as an actor in many mediums. One can look back on Kim as a trouble picture in politically incorrect sense, but in reality, it manifests Hollywood’s mindset worked it this time, gravitating to an older, intensive mindset in producing movies about other cultures. However, it was all about the money and MGM won out on that in the end.