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Still from Kid-Napped! in Movie Makers, Dec. 1944, 474.

Date produced: 1944

Filmmaker(s):

Victor Ancona

Languages:

English

Length:

325 ft

Format:

8mm

Colour:

Kodachrome

Sound Notes:

Silent

Sound:

With music and special recording on disc.

Awards/Recognition:

ACL Ten Best 1944 - General Class

Description:

"These Third Avenue kids, see, are playing hide and seek around the front stoops and dark doorways of their native block, when one of them — a little girl — huddles thoughtlessly into the back seat of a parked and beckoning car. Her adventures, when the car is then driven off by a gay young pair of picnickers, comprise the story of Kid-Napped! by Victor Ancona. It is a dramatic story, full of suspense and impending tragedy, but it is one, happily, which refuses ever to take itself too seriously. The young man and his lady pass a bright day in the country with their sandwiches, soda pop and jazz music on a portable radio. The little girl — whom chance dictates shall not be discovered by the picnickers until near the film's end — wanders in happy wonder from flower to fern, from bird song to lakeside. These parallel themes — interspersed with occasional dramatic flashes of a frantic mother — are developed by Mr. Ancona in a suave combination of imaginative camera viewpoints, striking manipulation of outdoor lighting and competent cutting. An 8mm. production, Kid-Napped! eschews, with brilliant selectivity, the unsatisfactory long shot, to present the medium at its best." Movie Makers, Dec. 1944, 494.

Subjects:

Genre:

Form:

Screenings:

  • Screened by the New York City 8mm. Motion Picture Club in 1944: New York City, N.Y.
  • Screened by the Metropolitan Motion Picture Club in 1944: New York City, N.Y.
  • Screened by the Washington 8mm. Movie Club in 1945: Washington, D.C.

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