Robert Louis Stevenson's adventure tale of a young 18th century boy betrayed by his wicked uncle didn't need a romantic subplot, but that didn't stop 20th Century Fox from including a female love interest (Arleen Whelan). Bypassing that plot point, Kidnapped stars Freddie Bartholomew as the heir to a Scottish estate, whose supposedly beneficent uncle (Reginald Owen) arranges for the boy to be kidnapped and spirited off to sea. The lad is rescued by Scottish rebel leader Alan Breck (Warner Baxter), and together the pair fight against the British Army troops as they head back through Scotland. Baxter doesn't quite liberate his homeland, but Bartholomew sees to it that his uncle gets his just deserts. Kidnapped was remade in 1947 with Roddy McDowell (just old enough to be given a girlfriend of his own by the screenwriters), then twice more in 1960 and 1971.
