FAQ

Forward-thinking Lord Henry Loam (Cecil Parker) believes that the aristocracy and their servants should occasionally mix as equals, but when his daughter Catherine (Mercy Haystead) is arrested at a suffragette march, Lord Henry decides to take the family on a long cruise until the tongues of highly class-conscious English society stop wagging. Unfortunately, their yacht, the Bluebell, encounters a storm, the engine blows up, and everyone is required to abandon ship. Lord Henry, his daughters -- Catherine, Agatha (Miranda Connell, and Mary (Sally Ann Howes) -- clergyman John Treherne (Jack Watling), and Lord Ernest Woollery (Gerald Harper) are forced to share their lifeboat with two of their servants, butler William Crichton (Kenneth More) and junior servant Eliza (Diane Cilento), nicknamed 'Tweeny' because she's a 'between maid'. When they land on an uninhabited island, it quickly becomes apparent that the butler is the most resourceful and practical person in the lot, which places him in the position of leader and the aristocrats in positions of servitude, putting the rigid English class system to the test.

The Admirable Crichton (aka Paradise Lagoon) is based on the play The Admirable Crichton (1902) by J.M. Barrie of Peter Pan fame. The play was adapted for the movie by British screenwriters Vernon Harris and Lewis Gilbert (who also directed the movie). Other adaptations of Barrie's play include two silent versions, The Admirable Crichton (1918) (1918) and Zustände wie im Paradies (1919) (1919), a musical version Schiffbruch unter Palmen (1934) (1934), and a made-for-TV version The Admirable Crichton (1968) (1968).

'Suffrage' is defined as 'the right to vote.' In 1905 England, women did not have this right and banded together to form the 'suffragette movement,' waging militant protests that landed some women in jail or worse. Women in the UK were finally given the vote in 1918 if over the age of 30 and meeting certain property qualifications. Ten years later, suffrage was extended to all women over the age of 21.

The castaways are rescued and returned to England, each resuming their prior roles. Woollery writes a book that makes him the hero on the island, and Lord Henry claims that he took charge. Both realize that their accounts on the island could, at any time, be compromised by Crichton telling how it really happened. When Lady Emily Brocklehurst (Martita Hunt), mother of Lady Mary's beau George (Peter Graves), questions them all about the events on the island, Crichton and the others assure her that there was as little equality there as at home. Following Lady Brocklehurst's grilling, Crichton announces that he's going to leave Lord Henry's service, intending to start up a business with the capital he acquired on the island...a bag full of pearls. Mary tries to convince the guv to stay and fight for her hand, but Crichton assures her that 'no man can fight civilization and win.' In the final scene, Crichton says goodbye to the Loams and leaves Loam Hall with the woman he intends to marry...Tweeny...while Mary looks on sadly as their carriage drives away.