Just perfect...

Crappy film

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Based on a Hammond Innes novel, this 1957 colour production is a good deal better film than its current 6.3 score on IMDB would suggest. The film is beautifully shot (with the Italian Dolomites substituting for Alberta) and mostly ably acted by a good cast. It is that rare thing, an action/adventure film that all the family can enjoy. The plot revolves around a race against time for a dying man (Bogarde) to drill for oil before his grandfather's land is flooded by dam belonging to a mining corporation, with baddie Stanley Baker pulling every dirty trick going to stop him.When I first saw the film, I was, as others have commented, less than convinced by the mixture of accents on offer. But upon reflection, Canada at that time -especially in any boom industry- was full of immigrants from all over the world. I also thought James Robertson Justice's accent was a bit weird, but I've since heard natives from that part of Scotland for real, and it is not so far off as I originally thought.In summary this film is not at all bad, well worth watching.

Well, my old mother in law enjoyed it! I've given it a 5 because of the confusion it created(pour moi).Campbell's Kingdom is up there,in the Rockies.Nearby,a construction gang have built a dam-for hydro-electricity.The plan is to allow water to flow over the dam and into CK.Where they are finding oil. The construction team are into sabotage of the well diggers efforts.I got all that.It was when an inclinator was used to go up to the CK land I got confused.This mountain climbing device took us up into the snowy peaks of the Rockies.Where the prospective oil field was. Where then,was the dam that would flood the oil field?Well,it must have been even higher! It just didn't make sense.Later scenes showed the dam breaking and doing a bit of flooding.It was well and truly above the oil field. A rousing matinée tale but hard to digest geographically.

A potboiler for highly talented Dirk Bogarde who succeeds in making his character endearing though.A "terminally-ill" man ,who,except for one sequence in which he faints ,may seem debatable for he leads a very active (and even dangerous in the last part) life;it's all clear in the end but this ending is a bit far-fetched! Stanley Baker is cast again as the villain (because he looks so much the part?).The word "kingdom" is justified ,for it's is located in an isolated place ,where Bogarde 's granddaddy was deceived ;the villains want to buy Bogarde's heritage,but the young man wants to try and find black gold on his hermitage ,helped by an old Scottish pal,a girl and her friend .To make the matters worse ,there is a dam and the movie ,ahead of its time ,ends as a disaster movie .Not a great role for Bogarde ,but watchable all the same.

In the 1950s - in stark contrast to today - people were queueing up to leave Britain.Fed up with post -war austerity,rationing,low wages,class distinction and crap weather hundreds of thousands opted for healthier,more prosperous climes.Many became" £10 Poms ",taking an assisted passage to Australia,I barely escaped that fate myself,my father - an electrical engineer - being offered a promotion and a move to the south coast a few months before we would have sailed.Others made for other former colonies that offered a fresh start,Canada being the most popular alternative destination.To any waverers amongst them,the magnificent setting of "Campbells Kingdom" might well have acted as the clincher.The actors,the plot,the script,all are secondary to the majestic great outdoors that dominates the film.It is a "Kingdom" indeed fit for a king. Taken from a Hammond Innes novel,the film tells the story of a dying man who goes to Canada to claim his inheritance,but of course he's Dirk Bogarde and he isn't really dying at all but he does get to show his 3/4 profile a lot and look rather archly at the camera because this was before we discovered he could act and we were quite happy for him to put a cigarette in his elegant mouth and smoulder. Stanley Baker is,unsurprisingly,the bad guy,and he has thin lips and sneers at Dirk rather unpleasantly.He and several other members of the cast all make courageous but ill - advised attempts at the Canadian accent.I wish they hadn't - but there it is. I enjoyed this in 1958,smoking my "Gitanes"(pretentious - moi?) and blowing bubbles down the straw of my "Kia - Ora" in my innocent uncritical way,but after half a century of determined movie - going it now looks like little more than a travelogue plagued by some pretty appalling acting. Its always a pleasure to watch the young Mr Bogarde valiantly trying to express real emotion but falling short of the mark and he does it a lot here.But,bless him,he kept at it and eventually got it right a few years later in "Victim".But,as I ground the stub of my "Gitane" into the carpet and dropped my empty "Kia - Ora " under the seat,I just wanted him to punch Stanley Baker..