Entertaining Family Friendly Film with Impressive Special Effects
The 1960 fantasy adventure film The 3 Worlds of Gulliver was inspired by the 1726 novel Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift and follows it more closely than some film versions of the same story, and of many film versions based on books.
In 1699, Dr. Lemuel Gulliver, played by Kerwin Mathews, is a poor young surgeon in a small town in England. Mathews is particularly attractive, likable, and appealing in this role. Dr. Gulliver is engaged to a beautiful young woman named Elizabeth, played by June Thorburn. The movie is correct in Gulliver’s profession, but in the book Gulliver was a married man with children.
Determined to seek his fortune, Gulliver embarks on an ocean voyage, only to find that Elizabeth has stowed away. In the book, none of Gulliver’s family accompanied him. Gulliver insists that Elizabeth be sent back to England and while they argue during a violent storm, Gulliver is tossed overboard and washed ashore on a land called Lilliput populated by tiny humans called Lilliputians. Much of the action on Lilliput is derived from the book, with the Lilliputians being small-minded as well as small in size, and such issues as how to open an egg being fighting matters. Several incidents from the book are well represented, such as the famous scene of Gulliver awaking to find himself tied down by the tiny humans, stealing the navy of the Lilliputians’ enemies from the neighboring land of Blefuscu, and the Lilliputians parading between Gulliver’s feet. The queen is angry and ungrateful when Gulliver puts out a fire at the palace, and when the Lilliputians turn hostile and murderous Gulliver escapes in a boat of his own construction.
In the book, Gulliver’s travels occur on separate sea voyages, but the movie goes straight from one adventure to the next, with Gulliver arriving on the shores of Brobdingnag, which is populated by giants. In the book he was found by a farmer, turned over to the farmer’s young daughter Glumdalclitch, and then to the king, but in the movie Glumdalclitch, played by Sherri Alberoni, finds Gulliver. Elizabeth has also been found and installed in a tiny palace in the king’s palace. Elizabeth is happy and feels all their needs will be met by the king, but Gulliver is not so sure. Sure enough, Prime Minister Makovan accuses Gulliver of witchcraft. The Brobdingnagians live in a society much like Europe of the Middle Ages, while Gulliver represents the Age of Enlightenment. The king sentences Gulliver to be burned, but Glumdalclitch saves Gulliver and Elizabeth and sets them afloat in a sewing basket.
The special effects, by the wonderful Ray Harryhausen, are excellent for the time and pretty good to look at even now. I was hoping the third world would portray the Houyhnhnms, a race of talking horses featured in the fourth voyage in the book. I had actually forgotten most of the third voyage except for the struldbrugs, who are immortal and remain in the worst condition of old age. I was interested to see how the Houyhnhnms might be portrayed, but as it turned out, the third world was good old England. In a sort of a Wizard of Oz moment, Gulliver and Elizabeth develop a new appreciation for their old homeland after their adventures.
This movie is rated for ages 7+ and I would agree with this assessment. It is entertaining, lacks some of the sad and distressing elements of the book, and the only objectionable elements consist of the behavior of the inhabitants Gulliver encounters. Recommended.