The Reivers is a nice bawdy film, sort of Walt Disney with an adult rating. Imagine a charming nostalgia-soaked family-type film about a winsome 11-year-old in turn-of-the-century Mississippi who gets himself cut up in a Memphis bordello defending the good name of a lovely professional lady. The film is an adaptation [narrated by Burgess Meredith] of William Faulkner’s last novel.
Mitch Vogel, as the kid, is appealing, subtle and sensitive, hovering between freckle-faced moppet and sexual puberty.
He is led astray by the family handy man and resident rogue Steve McQueen who gives a lively ribald characterization. Completing the triumvirate of ‘Reivers’, an old word that means ‘thieves’, is Rupert Crosse. He is a humorously light-hearted but sardonically mocking dude.
In a gleaming gold Winton Flyer the three steal off to Memphis, and the end of innocence for the boy.
1969: Nominations: Best Supp. Actor (Rupert Crosse), Original Music Score
