The Admirable Crichton (1957 film) The Admirable Crichton (1957 film) The Admirable Crichton is a 1957 British comedy film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Kenneth More, Diane Cilento, Cecil Parker and Sally Ann Howes. The film was based on J. M. Barrie's 1902 stage comedy of the same name. It was released in the United States as Paradise Lagoon. In 1905 William Crichton is the efficient butler in the London household of the Earl of Loam and his family. Crichton knows his place in the highly class-conscious English society. The Earl insists that all men are equal, and to prove it, he orders his
The Admirable Crichton society". At the beginning of Act Two, Loam, his family and friends, and Crichton are shipwrecked on a deserted tropical island. The resourceful Crichton is the only one of the party with any practical knowledge, and he assumes, initially with reluctance, the position of leader. This role begins to take on sinister tones when he starts training Ernest, one of the young aristocrats with them, to break a liking for laboured epigrams by putting his head in a bucket of water whenever he makes one. Crichton's social betters at first resist his growing influence and go their separate ways, but