The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin

Although not in the same league with Disney live-action classics such as Mary Poppins or Old Yeller, 1967's The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin, based on Sid Fleischman's children's favorite By the Great Horn Spoon, remains one of the studio's better efforts from the '60s. Roddy McDowall stars as the titular "Bullwhip" Griffin, although when viewers first meet him, he is simply Griffin, a stiff-upper-lip butler in Boston circa the mid-19th century to the Flagg family, whose patriarch grandfather has recently met his maker and left his wards, 12-year-old Jack (Bryan Russell) and his older sister Arabella (Suzanne Pleshette) with--forgive the technical jargon--doodley squat. Jack, whose head has been spun round by tales of the Gold Rush, becomes a stowaway aboard a ship bound for San Francisco, where he's found by Griffin, and the pair become involved in a  treasure hunt, racing against the villainous Judge Higgins (Karl Malden). The finest scenes find the city slickers trying to adapt to the larger-than-life day-to-day goings on in early boomtown San Francisco, and the entire story leads up to a still funny set-piece pitting the gentleman boxer Griffin against the thrice-his-size brawling Mountain Ox (a lengthy sequence full of speeded-up motion, animation, sound effects, and various other humorous technical tricks). Boasting a solid widescreen transfer, but--unfortunately--no extras, this is definitely recommended. (R. Pitman)