AllMovie

Unlike the more succinct 1950 MGM version, the 1984 TV movie adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's Kim (filmed on location in India) takes its own sweet time establishing characters and exposition. You'll have to stay with the film for its first half hour to determine who is who and what is what, but the end result is worth the effort. Ravi Sheth stars as Kim, a street orphan in Lahore, India during the height of the British Raj. Kim's amazing adventures get under way the moment he learns that he's actually the son of a British soldier. One such exploit involves horse trader Bryan Brown (playing a character essayed by Errol Flynn in the 1950 film), who uses Kim as a spy for the British against Russian infiltrators in the Himalayas. The big-money act in Kim is Peter O'Toole as a wizened Buddhist monk. O'Toole's acting is impeccable, though his false beard and bald wig make him resemble the woebegone hermit who always shows up in the opening credits of Monty Python's Flying Circus.