L'aventure est au large

I, like most others in this forum, happen to love this little movie. There's something about its good-naturedness that is captivating, and its open-air-and-sea setting that gives it a timeless quality. The idea of being a capable young woman who travels around the Caribbean on a boat with a genial parent, leading an unstructured life with plenty of little adventures, must be quite attractive to young female viewers. And then there is Hayley Mills, the effortlessly charming English actress who forever inspires crushes. And why? Perhaps because she's pretty but not too pretty, English but not too English, quite lively but not brassy, and quite natural without the child actor show-offiness or affectations. Truly the girl you want to have next door. For fans of Hayley (note "HAYLEY": for some reason many in this forum can't spell her name correctly) this film has an air of poignancy about it because this is the last of her teen parts. After this she moved on to young adult parts ('That Darn Cat,' her next film, dolled her up and gave her a boyfriend right from the start --- and it was also her last Disney film). Here she'd just turned eighteen and co-star James MacArthur (son of Helen Hayes and famed screen & stage writer Charles MacArthur) was about 27. There had been a contest held by Hayley fans at the time as to who should co-star with her in this film and MacArthur (a Disney alumni) was given the top vote. He was married at the time so no off-screen romance developed. But they are cute together. In my opinion the scene where a trapped Hayley is teased with a rope that MacArthur drops down to her is a small showcase of Hayley's natural and economic comic timing: a kind of ability that Disney could never find again. And one of the pluses of this film is that it is NOT a Disney production, meaning that it has more of a laconic, low-key English flavor to it. It certainly could be mistaken for Disney, and might have made a bigger splash at the box office (it was a dud) and be easily available today on DVD or VHS if it had been, but as a trade-off, it has an easygoing charm without the Disney tendency to offer explosive, slapsticky finishes, or cartoony musical flourishes (e.g. 'In Search of the Castaways' or 'That Darn Cat'). There's also the pleasure of watching outstanding English character actors like Lionel Jeffries and Harry Andrews clearly enjoying themselves. And there's the obvious pleasure of watching the real father-daughter team of John and Hayley playing off each other. John Mills recounted how enjoyable it was making this movie because it was like one long holiday. And note that although the film's story takes place in the Caribbean, in fact, the movie itself was filmed along the southern coast of Spain. In addition, it was released in the UK as 'The Pirates of Spring Cove' and is available on video from England under that title (unfortunately, England uses the PAL video format, thus you have to have a video player that can play that format to view it). I agree that Universal Home Video has foolishly let this movie slip through the cracks, but sometimes movies have copyright problems, so it's possible that Universal would like to release this film but some rights issue is snagging things. Certainly this is not a lost masterpiece worthy of mass petitions or Congressional action, but I think it should be brought to Universal's attention that there ARE buyers out there waiting for a chance to own this little gem.

I saw this on tv many times while growing up in the 70s. Strange it has never been released on home video of any kind and even stranger it doesn't show up on tv or cable or satellite much these days. The film stars father and daughter John and Haley Mills about a crusty old 'sea captain' with a teen daughter whose plum for leaving the nest. The girl has grown up basically as a Tomboy crew cut and all, plying the sea lanes in and around the Florida Keys and living a sea-going nomads life with her father, but is now physically looking more like a woman. She's rounding out and is about 17 or 18 years old, Mills's true age in 1964. A young man called Ashton(played by James MacArthur) comes into their lives and he is taken with and falls in love with Spring(Haley's character). As all birds do young Spring must leave the nest which means Spring and Tommy(John Mills) have to separate. This is touching as the only life this girl has known has been living on one derelict boat after another in and out of the Florida Keys. After pondering her decisions, Spring decides to accept Ashton's marriage proposal and Tommy gives his blessing as he approves of Ashton.

The movie is well photographed with bright rich easy colors and could almost pass off as any of the Disney movies Haley Mills is best remembered for. Very family friendly even though modern day pirate action is supposed to denote a touch of menace to the picture. Tommy and his cohorts are much too lovable for any 'Yo Ho Ho'. A cast of well-known British character actors add to the fun of this 'pseudo' pirate adventure ie: Harry Andrews, Niall MacGinnis, Lionel Jeffries as Tommy's cronies. This is a fun-for-all tale of a girl coming of age and for me it reminds of the tv show Flipper. It takes place in the same area that Flipper does(Florida Keys vicinity) and was released around the same time Flipper premiered on t.v. in the mid-60s. Yep a good fable about coming of age for the children to sit down and watch.

This is a family oriented movie with romance, coming of age, adventure, pirates and comedy all rolled into one. My wife, 2 teenage daughters and my first grade son all enjoy this one as much as I do.

I was teenager when I saw that movie. Actually I was always dreaming this movies and I still remember some parts. Now I am 54 and unfortunately nowadays teenagers do not have possibilities to watch this kind of bright pictures. All new pictures are having violence, blood,terror, fear.....and all similar. The children grow anti - social and are trained only for harming the others. I would like to know if I can find the DVD of this picture? I really want to watch it again and want to show all teenagers and ever younger ones. Can anyone inform me about the availability of it's DVD. I will be thanking for those who informs me.

I saw this film when I still had a crush on Halley Mills (I was 14,in 1964) So what if I'm a romantic? It was a nice Feel good Movie, set it the Caribbean when even pirates seemed a little less lethal. It was a clean right of passage / Baby leaves the nest film. Cleverly written not overdone, while showing the acting talents of Halley and her father John. When I finaly made my way to the Caribbean where this film was shot ten years later,I found I wasn't alone in my love for this film. Now I which I had this film on DVD.