disgusting, overrated, pointless

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

The Truth About Spring recounts the adventures of Tommy Tyler, a lazy sailor and his tomboy daughter, Spring, as they meet William Ashton, a young lawyer cruising the Caribbean. They soon join forces and engage in the search of a buried treasure also coveted by menacing pirates. This film, shot off the Costa Brava coast in Spain in the spring of 1964, is an excellent entertainment for the whole family and arguably one of Hayley Mills' best movies. Indeed, the 18 year-old British actress delivers one of her finest performances. Her on screen chemistry with both her father (John Mills) and James MacArthur is delightful. Most of the scenes are funny, witty, sweet and moving. Even our heroes' encounters with the competitive pirates are amusing rather than really violent. It's a shame this little gem of a movie has not been officially released on DVD. Nevertheless, if you happen to find it in any other format, do not hesitate! Enjoy it! And that's the truth about it!

Top notch comedy/adventure film with a very solid cast....you gotta wonder why Disney did not make this film...it had three of Disney's top performers at the time, Hayley Mills (Pollyanna) and James McArthur and John Mills from - Swiss Family Robinson, both huge grossing films for the Disney vault.....story is about a young, growing of age lady Hayley Mills who wanders around the Bahamas with her landlubber father, a sea captain who wanders aimlessly about and supposedly has a map for buried treasure hidden on his boat...Mills and her father John Mills are a team so to speak - they are waiting for the correct time to find treasure but some of Mills adversaries on the treasure hunt force their way into the action too. In other words some other adventurers want in on finding the treasure....after all getting together through a compromise of sorts a load of dynamite is set off on a beach and lo and behold they find no buried treasure - just a bunch of skeletons.....back to square one!!! Through some shifty juggling Mill's father has managed to con their rivals out of a $1000 advance to find the treasure....ha-ha-...it backfires on the other looters. Secondary in the film is a blossoming relationship between Mcarthur and Hayley....they are slowly falling in love, much to the delight of Mills father who realizes that wandering about aimlessly at sea for years and years is no life for his daughter. In the end McArthur departs Mills boat and returns to his uncle's yacht minus Hayley....then McArthuer quickly realizes he cannot leave the best thing ever in his life on that dumpy fishing boat of her fathers....quickly McArthur and Hayley get together and a marriage is on the way...This is a lighthearted film with lots of laughs and a decent story to tell......made especially for the teenage set of the mid 60s with a cast to attract them in McArther and Hayley Mills. Very hard to understand why this film has never been put on DVD, considering the top notch cast.....one of Hayley Mills best films. A real treat for the teenage audience.

Considering how cheap it is to make DVD's-and how much of a market there is out there for family films- why this is not out is truly puzzling. If they did a bare bones without commentary, etc, it probably would not cost more then a few thousand to produce it. Charge 9.99 for each and I bet you would sell 10,000 easy right off the bat, and a steady sale for years after. There are a lot of grandfathers and grandmothers out there that remember Hayley Mills, and would love to give something like this to their grandchildren. She was just growing up in this film, and fit it just right. James McCarthur fit right in; and what can one say about John Mills that has not already been said. The collection of English character actors also enrich this film- a separate delight all their own. The innocence and fun that this film displays so beautifully is not something you will ever see again. To say no one makes 'em like this anymore is a gross understatement.

I saw this on tv many times while growing up in the 70s. Strange it has never been released on home video of any kind and even stranger it doesn't show up on tv or cable or satellite much these days. The film stars father and daughter John and Haley Mills about a crusty old 'sea captain' with a teen daughter whose plum for leaving the nest. The girl has grown up basically as a Tomboy crew cut and all, plying the sea lanes in and around the Florida Keys and living a sea-going nomads life with her father, but is now physically looking more like a woman. She's rounding out and is about 17 or 18 years old, Mills's true age in 1964. A young man called Ashton(played by James MacArthur) comes into their lives and he is taken with and falls in love with Spring(Haley's character). As all birds do young Spring must leave the nest which means Spring and Tommy(John Mills) have to separate. This is touching as the only life this girl has known has been living on one derelict boat after another in and out of the Florida Keys. After pondering her decisions, Spring decides to accept Ashton's marriage proposal and Tommy gives his blessing as he approves of Ashton.The movie is well photographed with bright rich easy colors and could almost pass off as any of the Disney movies Haley Mills is best remembered for. Very family friendly even though modern day pirate action is supposed to denote a touch of menace to the picture. Tommy and his cohorts are much too lovable for any 'Yo Ho Ho'. A cast of well-known British character actors add to the fun of this 'pseudo' pirate adventure ie: Harry Andrews, Niall MacGinnis, Lionel Jeffries as Tommy's cronies. This is a fun-for-all tale of a girl coming of age and for me it reminds of the tv show Flipper. It takes place in the same area that Flipper does(Florida Keys vicinity) and was released around the same time Flipper premiered on t.v. in the mid-60s. Yep a good fable about coming of age for the children to sit down and watch.