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The Boy Who Stole the Elephant (1970) (TV)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
20 September 1970 (USA) morePlot:
A boy working in a struggling circus troupe develops a great rapport with an elephant on loan from a more successful circus... more | add synopsisPlot Keywords:
Elephant
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Circus
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Animal
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Kids And Family
User Comments:
Delightful variant on the book moreCast
(Credited cast)| David Wayne | ... | Colonel Rufus Ryder | |
| June Havoc | ... | Molly Jeffrys | |
| Dabbs Greer | ... | Stilts | |
| Parley Baer | ... | Mayor Hancock | |
| Whitney Blake | ... | Helen Owens | |
| James Westerfield | ... | Sheriff Berry | |
| Robert Emhardt | ... | Cy Brown | |
| Tom Drake | ... | Mr. Corbert | |
| Betty Lynn | ... | Lottie Ladare | |
| Doris Singleton | ... | Lizzie Ladare | |
| rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
| Richard Kiel | ... | Luke Brown | |
| Mark Lester | ... | Davey | |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parentsRuntime:
USA:120 min (including commercials)Country:
USALanguage:
EnglishColor:
Color (Technicolor)Aspect Ratio:
1.33 : 1 moreSound Mix:
Mono (RCA Sound Recording)FAQ
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I'm not sure why Mark Lester is listed in the cast as though he had a bit part, because he is the star. The IMDB information does not list the studio, but I think if it's not Disney it is an adaptation that he could have made-- considerably prettified and sugar-coated compared to Julilly Kohler's novel. But I won't complain, because it works.
A modification is required right off to explain how a clearly English boy comes to be a runaway waif in the middle of the late 19th-century U.S. Further, in the novel Catfish Williams, his boss, is a brutal drunkard, an incompetent circus manager, and an all-around S.O.B. In the film, he is a lovable avuncular sort with one Achilles heel: a weakness for gambling. The film casts the owner of the circus that owns the elephant as a dashing woman with a long-standing soft place in her heart, maybe even a romantic interest, in old Catfish.
Kohler, a member of the family of plumbing-appliance magnates in Wisconsin, whose company underwent a famous worker's strike around the 1950s, is not particularly famous as a children's author, but I think that my father once met her at a writer's conference and brought this book of hers home to me as a small child. I've always liked it, and so have other children to whom I have introduced it. The film is a nice honor to her work, even if it was changed in some respects. If you enjoy the film, try to read it.