one of my absolute favorites!

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

This is a good Disney film; not a great one. The film has two major assets: the Florida location and Peter Ustinov. He was the reason I checked it out over a decade ago in the first place. If anything, he is the only reason to see it. The plot follows a boy (Johnny Duran) trying to find a treasure in the Florida keys that his late father buried; along the way he encounters four adventurers (Robert Foxworth, Joan Hackett, Peter Ustinov and Billy Atmore) who join him on his quest. And of course they are being pursued by a bad guy (Vic Morrow, a fine but wasted talent, like Joan Hackett, he passed away before his time). A great adult cast supporting a boy and his treasure hunt. Merely meant for kids; but I finally got it on DVD, with some scenes added that were not on the video!! Dub Taylor has a brief but comic role as Sheriff Forbes. This movie is just good fun. Ustinov, of course, had more success with Blackbeard 10 years earlier.

I had always wanted to see this movie as it was based on one of my favorite books, the historical novel "A Journey to Matecumbe" by Robert Lewis Taylor, who also wrote the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, "The Travels of Jamie McPheeters." The book is a wonderful exciting and funny tale of a post-Civil War journey by a young boy and his uncle from Kentucky to the Florida Keys being pursued by the Ku Klux Klan and a vengeful southern aristocrat, with lots of great adventures in between.I spent $10 for this movie and now wish I hadn't. The names of a few characters from the book are retained, but almost everything else is changed. It is neither particularly exciting or funny and it wastes the talents of a number of excellent character actors like Peter Ustinov, Dub Taylor, George Lindsay and Joan Hackett. It was also made on the cheap with lots of stock footage of the exotic locales that the characters are supposed to visit and lots of process shots filmed in front of blue screens. I suppose very young children MIGHT like it, but there are some violent scenes that make it problematic even for them. It's a probably eternal mystery why Hollywood buys the rights to film wonderful books and then doesn't put on the screen anything of what made the books wonderful in the first place.

Yes, this is the only Disney film to feature the Klu Klux Klan.But, horrible racist morons aside, this film can be very enjoyable if you remember seeing it as a child. I remember my father taking me to see this in the theatre when I was very young, and, now that he's no longer with us, it an opportunity to relive some childhood magic. Even if it's just for a moment.Peter Ustinov is wonderful as always.And the opening theme music is very cheesy but COOL in a silly 70's sort of way.If you enjoy the vibe of Disney films like "Child of Glass", you'll probably dig this one too.

A prettily photographed, occasionally enjoyable but rather leisurely paced Disney adventure. It features an amusing Peter Ustinov (as a good-hearted quack), some pretty good special effects (except for a mosquito attack, which looks awful) and a few unusually adult elements (one character is nearly executed by the Ku Klux Klan). The two leading kids are not irritating at all, and the film is agreeable enough, but too long and not very compelling story-wise. (**1/2)