Dunston Checks In

An unruly orang-utan plus an opulent hotel setting equals a natural disaster, or in this case a kids' movie. Robert (Alexander) manages the Majestic Hotel, New York, owned by avaricious Mrs Dubrow (Dunaway). She's convinced that the so-called Lord Rutledge (Everett) is really a hotel critic, and insists that everything runs extra smoothly. But Robert's sons discover that the lord's a jewel thief with an anthropoid accomplice. When the gangly one, Dunston, finally escapes Rutledge's clutches, the kids spend the rest of the film trying to conceal him. The children we took adored the cheerful scenario and sad-cum-happy signposted climax. Adults, on the other hand, will probably be stupefied by Everett's unrecognisable twit, complete with lip-distorting gum guard, and Dunaway's raging Ivana Trump turn. Alexander, though, is a likeable comic player in the Charles Grodin manner, and younger sibling Lloyd makes for a more loveable character than Macaulay Culkin. The film's admirably bereft of realistic violence, but then the makers blow it by slipping in a scene featuring Dunston innocently puffing on a cigarette.