The powers in Hayley Mills' life were desperate to ensure she "didn't grow up too fast". As a result she never got on drugs or booze - but on the other hand she married the first man she had sex with, Roy Boulting. I remember Universal had similar obsessions with growing up Deanna Durbin slowly.
This was technically Mills' first grown up, ish, role... though there's not a lot of romance. The lucky man was Peter McEnery, a young British actor. I feel maybe they should've gone with an American - Tommy Kirk would've been ideal and safe.
Mills goes on holiday to Greece with her aunt (Joan Greenwood!) and gets involved with robbers. It's slight but charming with wonderful location filming. McEnery is fine, though perhaps given too much of the action when the story should've been entirely geared to Mills, who is lovely as ever. Maybe they felt sorry for McEnery who is constantly being beaten up.
The support cast is fun: Eli Wllach as a baddy, Irene Papas as a local, John le Mesurier and Sheila Hancock as local Brits and Pola Negri, still looking pretty good, as a mysterious rich lady. A sweet fun film and I'm surprised Disney never remade it even if just for TV.
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