The Magical World of Disney (TV Series) The Swamp Fox: Tory Vengeance (1960) User Reviews

A well-mannered whipping

[a-east · 3 November 2012]

Disney has long prided itself as being a bastion of family entertainment and this was especially true during the Eisenhower Era. Violence, particularly of the torture variety, and especially when directed against the young, was all but forbidden, and displays of skin were almost unheard of. Yet in "Tory Vengeance" the rules are bent so that we see Tim Considine -- 18 years old but so virginal, he could easily pass as several years younger -- being forcibly stripped of his shirt, placed against a column, and lashed across his smooth, almost alabaster back. Great care was obviously taken so that this scene could pass muster. The ripping off of the shirt occurs so quickly that we get only a microsecond glimpse of Considine's boyish chest. During the whipping, he's only shown from the shoulders up so that you never see the whip hitting his flesh, only hear it. And when the whipping's over and the camera pulls back, you glimpse no more than a few discreet welts drawn across his back. Although his captors were trying to force information from him, they obviously didn't put much time or muscle in their actions, despite an earlier comment about how a whip can rip the flesh. Thanks to Disney's strictures, the Considine character gets off way too easy.