I enjoyed this on re-viewing. It is bright and colourful and has locations in India. There's a lot of brown face - a lot - but the filmmakers get the basic escapist conceit of the novel: it's a young boys fantasy, to be a carefree orphan who will do important work for his bosses, go to a boarding school but not a mean one, have adults look out for you, and spend your holidays spying.
Errol Flynn has a "big brother" role similar to The Prince and the Pauper - the real star is Dean Stockwell. They probably should have given those spy training sequences to Flynn - but the guy who does them is good.
Cecil Kellaway is in brownface as a fellow spy - his death is a genuine shock. It is nice to see two expat Aussies working together.
I enjoyed Robert Douglas as the efficient colonel - it was like he was in his own series/show and Stockwell kind of pops in. Paul Lukas is in brownface - I appreciated how he died though the film could have done a better job on the Stockwell-Lukas relationship.
The action/suspense scenes are quite exciting because they involve a young kid. I still would have liked more vigorous handling.
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