L'honorable Griffin

At the end of the fight scene with Roddy McDowall & Mike Mazurki, Richard Hadyn goes to the fight timekeeper (Dub Taylor) to distract him from ringing the triangle thereby ending the fight's round. He takes the triangle causing Taylor to whack, and utterly destroy, the pocketwatch that hangs on a post and that he is using to keep the time. Cut to cast congratulating McDowall on winning the fight. Cut back to Hadyn who hands Taylor back the triangle--only now the pocketwatch is back in place and totally intact!

This a Disney film that most people have never heard of and, to me, it is one of the funniest. OK, some of it is a little hokey, but, by and large, it is a film the whole family can enjoy. Roddy McDowall is perfect as the straight-laced butler who tries his best to help his young friend in the gold fields of 1849 California. Suzanne Pleshette (beautiful as ever) plays the love interest that Bullwhip can't bring himself to admit. She can also belt out a pretty good barroom tune. Add a crooked judge who is also a thief, one of the funniest fist fights ever filmed and likable villains and you have an entertaining romp in the old west.

This oldie finally showed up again -- and I hope it continues to bring laughter to many others. Watching Roddy McDowall reminds me how long he has entertained us, too often without recognition. Karl Malden makes a wonderful villain, in so many guises!! Susanne Pleshette shows off her singing talent while appearing to have a ball making this movie. In fact, it appears everyone involved enjoyed their work. The plot moves from Boston (after the reading of a will that seems unbelievable) to California's gold rush. Adventures and misadventures are encountered by a boy, his sister and their butler, along with colorful characters along the way. Not until well into the movie do we see the love interest played out. I don't know how critics view it, but for fun entertainment, this is well worth our time.

If you like old movies on the order of Support your Local Sheriff you will like this one. It's fun in a kooky sort of way. It was refreshing to see Roddy McDowell in such a nice role. I have watched it twice in the last 3 months on the Disney channel. I really recommend it.

Playing the title role of Bullwhip Griffin is Roddy McDowell, a gentleman's gentleman and guardian to heirs Bryan Russell and Suzanne Pleshette from Boston. It seems as though their father has died and the family fortune isn't quite what they've been led to believe. Never mind that, young Russell has lived on an intellectual diet of dime novels and is convinced that he can go to California and strike it rich with the Gold Rush.

The Adventures Of Bullwhip Griffin has a Mark Twain feel to it and it's not too bad, I think Mr. Clemens might have approved of it in his younger and less cynical days. The chief villain of the piece is Karl Malden playing a confidence man who goes by the name of 'Judge' Griffin. He's a man full of tricks, he's a lot like the 'king' and 'duke' characters from Huckleberry Finn. Twain would have really relished Malden's performance.

As for Roddy McDowall he's as innocent as those Americans going abroad for the first time as tourists in Innocents Abroad. In point of fact San Francisco and the gold fields of California were a whole continent away and might as well been a foreign country. In fact McDowall would have been more at home in London than in San Francisco had he gone east instead of west.

But this is America and it's the land of no titled classes. McDowall dares dream he too could win the hand of Suzanne Pleshette who has shaken her proper eastern upbringing to sing in Harry Guardino's Barbary Coast saloon. Guardino is another villain playing his part with relish, he's interested in Pleshette for more than her singing career.

Highlight of the film is McDowall taking on Mike Mazurki in a prize fight. Only in the movies would you think that McDowall could beat Mazurki in a fight. Still it's a very funny sequence.

The cast looks like they're having a real good time making this film and the enthusiasm is infectious. The Adventures Of Bullwhip Griffin is one of the better products to come from the Magic Kingdom in the Sixties.