Disney Through the Years - The 1950s: Live Action Features
Welcome to the fourth of many parts to a series of feature articles focused on Disney movies.
Every month this year I am going decade-by-decade through the history of Walt Disney Company’s feature films. I will review each film from Walt Disney Animation Studios and rank them. Starting this month with this entry, I’ll be doing an additional feature in the series that will focus on every live action film by Walt Disney Pictures. So, there will be two features each month from here on out.
For more details on what is and isn’t included in this series be sure to check out the first entry that introduces the series.
In the 1950s, Walt Disney went all in on live action features. The first was Treasure Island, released in July of 1950. But there would be 17 total live action feature films produced in the decade. They would largely be adventure films with pirates and swashbucklers or westerns - but almost all would be adaptations of novels. Only 8 of these films are currently available on Disney+ and those are the films we’ll focus on. Now, for whatever reason, Disney+ recently removed the “Disney Through the Years” category in the Search tab. So, you can follow along on Disney+, but now you have to search for each title in the search bar.
Treasure Island (1950)
So, Treasure Island was the first completely live action film by Disney. It was also the first color film adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1883 novel. The novel is considered a classic and inspired many things we think of when it comes to pirates like the peg-legged captain with a parrot and the treasure maps with ‘X’ marking the spot.
Bobby Driscoll was a child star who frequented Disney films. He would be best-known as Peter Pan in 1953, but he also starred in Song of the South (1946) and Melody Time (1948). He stars here as the protagonist, a preteen who gets caught up in a treasure hunt. Robert Newton plays Long John Silver and is probably the best part of the film. His wide eyes and growling manner of speaking make for the prototypical pirate. Newton’s career highlights would be largely adaptations of classic literature like Henry V, Oliver Twist, Les Miserables, and this film. He would reprise the role in a sequel and die in 1956.
As for the film itself, Treasure Island may be a fairly accurate adaptation of the classic novel, but it’s also a slog to get through. The violence is fairly tame and silly. This is the kind of movie where a man will get poked by a knife and fall down. Or someone will be shot in the face and they’ll hold their face and fall over. Accuracy in violence is not a requirement for enjoyment, but the action scenes are the highlights of the film and they are quite stilted.
Overall, like Cinderella, Treasure Island was an entry point into what would come for the 1950s, but largely a bore.
The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952)
I’m betting most readers didn’t know Disney produced a live action Robin Hood 20 years before its popular animated version of the legend.
This was the second live action film by Disney and it’s a bit of a step up from Treasure Island. While it does cover material that is well-trodden today, it manages to tackle it from slightly new perspectives like focusing the first 10-20 minutes on the King and his Sheriff of Nottingham leaving, which lead to Prince John being in charge and appointing his own Sheriff. One will still find scenes similar to later adaptations, such as the face off between Robin Hood and John Little over a river. But this is far from a beat-for-beat retread of Errol Flynn’s The Adventures of Robin Hood nor will you feel like you’re watching again Disney’s later film or Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
Still, despite all of that the film is firmly mediocre. It has just as many interesting scenes as dull ones and the cast - despite starring Peter Finch (Network) as the Sheriff of Nottingham - never quite elevates the film beyond a mid-level ‘50s medieval adventure. In a way, it isn’t surprising this version has been largely lost to time, as it doesn’t exactly exceed the more celebrated versions. But it probably won’t be the worst Disney has to offer in its catalogue.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
So, the next movie on Disney+ is not the next film Disney released. The two movies that followed The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men were the fairly obscure medieval adventure The Sword and the Rose and Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue. This film, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, is leaps and bounds better than what came before and one of the studio’s greatest live action films.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is the first live action production to not be distributed by RKO and not be filmed in England. Filming took place in Jamaica, The Bahamas, and at various studios in Hollywood. Also, it is the first to star A-list talent. Kirk Douglas was on a streak at this point, having already starred in Ace in the Hole by Billy Wilder and The Bad and the Beautiful by Vincente Minnelli, which earned him an Oscar nomination. Soon after 20,000 Leagues, he starred in Lust for Life (also by Minnelli, also earned a nomination) and Paths of Glory by Stanley Kubrick. In addition, there’s also Peter Lorre whose breakout role was in 1931’s M, followed by The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942), and Arsenic & Old Lace (1944). 20,000 Leagues would be one of his last notable roles before dying in 1964 from a stroke. And James Mason, who is considered the definitive Captain Nemo. He had been acting professionally on stage and screen for over 20 years, but 1954 was a huge year that brought him this role and major parts in Julius Ceasar (opposite Marlon Brando by Joseph Mankiewicz) and A Star is Born (opposite Judy Garland by George Cukor). These three leads are invaluable to the success of this movie.
Director Richard Fleischer also brought a lot to the adaptation. He would go on to have a mixed career with such films as Fantastic Voyage (1966), Doctor Dolittle (1967), Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), Soylent Green (1973), Conan the Destroyer (1984), and Red Sonja (1985). 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea would be considered one of the best films of his career. And it’s not a wonder since what he manages to do with the material is brush off the woodeness of Disney’s previous adventures. The production design within the Nautilus manages to be a combination of lush and practical. The particulars of the plot takes great liberty with Jules Verne’s classic novel, but is riveting and the most fun Disney had ever produced at this point.
All in all, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a film that should be rediscovered by modern audiences and Disney+ provides them that opportunity. With a wonderful cast and a thrilling adaptation with some of the best production values of the time (the budget was a steep $9 million; it earned $28 million worldwide), it is a one-of-a-kind adventure for the Golden Age of cinema.
Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier (1955) & Davy Crockett and the River Pirates (1956)
Many readers these days may not have any concept of this, but there was a time when Davy Crockett was as much a part of the Disney brand as Mickey Mouse. He was the live action mascot of 1950s Disney; coonskin caps were all the rage with young boys of that era. Now, Davy Crockett was actually a precursor to what we would consider today to be a TV miniseries, as there were only 5 chapters aired during the TV program Disneyland. It told the tale of a real life frontiersman and eventual politician of Tennessee. The episodes first aired in 1954 and 1955. Apparently, Walt got the idea to cobble together the first three episodes into one film and release it into theaters where people could see Davy in color for the first time (it was filmed in color, but television technology was mostly in black and white). It seemed to do pretty well, as it earned over $2 million at the box office. But how does this piece of Disney history fair today?
As a film it is definitely a step back from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but still more interesting and livelier than the first live action films of the decade. Fess Parker played Davy with an “awe, shucks” sincerity, but balanced with a frontiersman ingenuity likely necessary back in the early 1800s. Buddy Ebsen (later most famous for TV’s The Beverly Hillbillies a few years later) plays Davy’s loyal BFF, George Russel. They are largely the highlights of the whole affair.
The violence in King of the Wild Frontier is greatly skewed in favor of our heroes for there is one instance when Ebsen’s George somehow survives a tomahawk to his back while, moments earlier, Native Americans were dropping like flies after one shot of a rifle at a distance.
That does bring us to the greater issue with these films, especially King of the Wild Frontier: The racial politics are mixed at best. The films are riddled with references to the native’s skin color, treatments of them as dangerous savages, and such pejoratives as “Cossacks of the plain” and “injuns”. Meanwhile, Davy sincerely wants peace with the Native Americans and swears to one chief with genuine intention that they’ll never be relocated. When President Andrew Jackson and Congress eventually create a bill that will lead to the relocation of the natives to reservations, Crockett lambasts his peers (Davy eventually became Congressman himself) for treating another group of people so poorly for the color of their skin and differing cultures. It’s very much a product of its time that, in its own way, was well-meaning, yet unsuitable in today’s society. But it’s worth noting that these events have basis in historical accuracy, for Davy did try to ally himself with the local native tribes and did speak out against Jackson’s policies towards the natives.
King of the Wild Frontier follows an entire arc that ends with the Battle of the Alamo. However, it abruptly ends once Crockett is being overwhelmed by the Mexican Army.
The River Pirates was a combination of the last two chapters of the miniseries, which act as prequels, an odd choice. This film has more of a comical tone and a slighter plot having to do with Davy and George earning a ride down the Ohio River and an encounter with pirates pretending to be indigenous people of the area. It’s odd, given how King of the Wild Frontier featured white actors playing Native Americans, to see this then essentially comment on that by actively having white men pretend to be Native Americans as part of the plot. Mind you, it doesn’t ruminate on that too much; this is a Disney adventure after all. Overall, The River Pirates is forgettable and uninteresting compared to its predecessor.
All in all, the Davy Crockett films are relics of another time, ones with mixed racial politics and certainly have not translated well to the 21st century. They are largely curiosities, not classics.
Old Yeller (1957)
Walt Disney Pictures released two films in-between Davy Crockett and the River Pirates and Old Yeller, the western Westward Ho the Wagons! and the adventure Johnny Tremain. Neither of them are available on Disney+. So, we move on with Disney’s first live action family drama based on a book published the year before. Old Yeller is one of Disney’s most notorious movies in terms of emotional impact. Like Bambi, a death in the third act tends to overshadow the rest of the film. It’s nice to see there is so much more to the film, but it’s also unfortunate that nobody talks about it.
The film is about a yellow Labrador Retriever and the family that takes him in. Early in the film, the father of the family leaves for work that will take him away for a couple of months. There are two boys in the family. The stray encounters the boys sometime after the father leaves. The youngest, Arliss, takes to Old Yeller first while the oldest, Travis, finds the dog to be a nuisance and tries to scare him away. The mother, meanwhile, sees no harm in the dog. Throughout the film, Yeller protects Arliss and the family from wildlife. Old Yeller is quickly proven to be loyal and obedient. Eventually, Travis comes around to appreciating the dog.
There are two things that make this film interesting and clearly one of the best of Disney’s live action films at this point:
1) Old Yeller himself. I didn’t know that his name has a double meaning in that a) he is yellow and “yeller” is a colloquialism of the region and b) his bark sounds to the characters like a human yell. He is as handsome as his breed comes and far from the “ugly mutt” the theme song declares. But he is also incredibly loyal and obedient. He follows and assists the boys everywhere and in everything. If any member of the family is in trouble, Old Yeller will put himself in harm’s way. His qualities make him absolutely irresistible.
2) The narrative choice to have the father removed from the story is a deliberate one. It allows the story to illustrate how the older boy, Travis, must grow up and take responsibility without his father around. He must take the lives of living things to both provide and protect his family. His innocence is gone forever due to the events that take place in his father’s absence. It is an experience that was probably quite common in 1860s mid-West America and is probably rare today.
There is a third element to this film that develops during the final few minutes and that is an understanding that things will never be the same; they’ll be different, but not necessarily worse than before. There is a cycle to life and the human experience involves bearing witness to it and moving forward with life. All of these things make Old Yeller a surprisingly sturdy and resonant entry in the Disney library.
The Shaggy Dog (1959)
The year 1958 saw the release of two forgotten films The Light in the Forest and Tonka - neither are available on Disney+. But the next year would bring Disney’s first live action family comedy, The Shaggy Dog.
This film is an absolute delight that still mostly holds up today. The premise is a teen suddenly comes under a shapeshifting spell that turns him into his neighbor’s sheepdog. While figuring out a cure he must elude his dog-hating and allergic father and also stumbles upon a Cold War spy plot. Most of the films Disney produced in the ‘50s were based on books and The Shaggy Dog does give credit to a 1923 novel. But the book and the film have practically nothing in common and, in fact, the film actually recounts the story in the book and its tragic ending at one point. However, like Lady & the Tramp, this is largely an original work, a first for the studio’s live action department.
It’s not entirely without its issues, as a supporting character best friend named Buzz is a bit of a tool who never pays his friend back for borrowed money and sucks his friend into helping him date two women simultaneously (one of which is original Mouseketeer Annette Funicello). The film doesn’t exactly sympathize with Buzz, but his chauvinism isn’t entirely unfamiliar to modern audiences either.
You can see Walt must have got the idea to use his Disneyland animatronic technology for a live action picture, as the transformed protagonist alternates between a real dog and a robot one, particularly for shots with dialogue. It may not “feel real” to modern audiences, but it pretty much works. Also, the boys from Old Yeller star here: Tommy Kirk, the older brother and transformed protagonist; and Kevin Cocoran, the adorable little brother who loves the idea of having a dog. Both would be staples in Disney pictures through the ‘50s and ‘60s. Singin’ in the Rain star Jean Hagen stars as the matriarch of the family, a woman who puts up with her husband’s subtle condescension. Fred MacMurray, a fairly huge star in the ‘40s of such films as Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity, made the first of 7 appearances in Disney films here. With luck, you’ll see more of him later. It is a bit shocking how far he’ll go with his hatred of canines, including firing off a rifle in the neighborhood; that would certainly not fly today. But he clearly has a character arc.
All in all, The Shaggy Dog is a delightful surprise and worth digging up with the family.
Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959)
Here’s an odd little gem lost in Disney history. Based on a fairly obscure collection of stories called Ashes of Old Wishes and Other Darby O’Gill Tales by Herminie Templeton Kavanagh, the film follows an old man (Albert Sharpe) who tells tales of his experiences with leprechauns at the local pub. The thin story events of the movie hang on is that Darby is the caretaker of a Lord’s property and is being retired by the Lord in favor of a younger man (a 29-year-old Sean Connery!). Another thick-headed brute (Kieron Moore) in town schemes to take the job instead. Along the way, the King of the leprechauns, Brian, tries to take Darby away so Darby’s daughter Katie (Janet Munro) doesn’t learn that Darby lost his job.
…It doesn’t make a lot of sense when you think of it. And there are lots of important bits of information missing in the third act that would clarify events and the significance of certain Gaelic folklore characters. It probably would’ve only required 2-5 more minutes to satisfy.
But, on the whole, the film is unique and a mild delight. Albert Sharpe is remarkable as Darby O’Gill; it feels like he’s become that character from his manner of speaking to the mildest of facial gestures. Sharpe is worth seeing the movie for alone. But the special effects are also really impressive for the time. I’m not sure what fantasy or sci-fi contemporaries existed at the time, but it’s surprising how well Darby and the leprechauns blend on screen together. And the third act’s spirits are still somewhat frightening - certainly more frightening than what you’ll find in Disney’s modern catalogue!
The film is directed by Robert Stevenson, the same director of Old Yeller who would go on to direct several films in the ‘60s for Disney. We’ll definitely talk more about him later, I’m sure. This would not be Disney’s last official live action film of the ‘50s, as an adventure story Third Man on the Mountain would be released in November. That film bombed, was received lukewarmly by critics and is largely forgotten. It is not available on Disney+. Conversely, while I am uncertain of Darby O’Gill’s budget it did earn over $2.5 million at the box office and a Golden Globe for Munro. It currently holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Ranking
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Old Yeller
The Shaggy Dog
Darby O’Gill & The Little People
Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier
The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men
Treasure Island
Davy Crockett and the River Pirates
What are your thoughts?
How would you rank the decade’s movies? Which is your favorite?
Be sure to check out The 1950s: The Animated Features! And then, next month, we go back to the animated movies with The 1960s: Animated Features.