In Search of the Castaways

In Search of the Castaways is a 1962 Walt Disney Productions movie. It stars Hayley Mills, George Sanders, and Maurice Chevalier. The movie was directed by Robert Stevenson. It was based on Jules Verne's 1868 adventure novel Captain Grant's Children. The movie was Mills's third of six movies for the Disney Studios. The movie was a box office hit.

The Sherman brothers (Robert B. and Richard M. Sherman) wrote the songs "Castaway", "Merci Beaucoup", "Let's Climb", and "Enjoy It". Movie critic Hal Erickson wrote, "[The movie] is a roller-coaster of a Disney film, making up in excitement what it lacks in credibility or coherence...the film was ideal Saturday-matinee fodder for the kiddie trade in 1963."

Cast

• Hayley Mills as Mary Grant, Captain Grant's daughter
• Keith Hamshere as Robert Grant, Captain Grant's son
• Jack Gwillim as Captain Grant, a castaway
• Maurice Chevalier as Jacques Paganel, friend to Mary and Robert
• Wilfrid Hyde-White as Lord Glenarvan
• Michael Anderson, Jr. as John Glenarvan, his son
• George Sanders as Thomas Ayerton
• Wilfrid Brambell as Bill Gaye, a castaway
• Antonio Cifariello as Thalcave, Indian Chief
• Inia Te Wiata as Maori Chief

Story

Teenager Mary Grant, her brother Robert, and their friend Professor Paganel, persuade Lord Glenarvan to rescue shipwrecked Captain Grant. They sail halfway around the world on Lord Glenarvan's yacht. The friends survive an earthquake, a flood, a fire, an attack by a giant condor, and a volcanic eruption before rescuing Captain Grant from fierce Maoris.

A subplot involves a criminal named Thomas Ayerton, a former crew-member of Captain Grant's ship. He was responsible for Captain Grant's disappearance. Another subplot involves a romance between Mary and Lord Glenarvan's son John.