David Niven's first autobiography The Moon's a Balloon was a fantastic bestselling success in 1972; when you watch Paper Tiger, you can't help but wonder if it was written for the star after someone read his memoir. In the book, Niven shares countless, incredibly detailed stories from his time in the service, and in the movie, he shares just as many entertaining war anecdotes. It was an absolutely perfect role for that time in his career.In Paper Tiger, David Niven, an English WW2 veteran whose war injury requires a cane, is hired by the Japanese ambassador to tutor his young son. Immediately, Niven and Ando, a most adorable little boy in his first and only film, bond as Niven talks about his time in the war. A terrorist organization kidnaps both the boy and his tutor and holds them hostage, in hopes that the ambassador will cave to their demands. What will the old war hero do?David Niven gives a wonderful, touching performance, and Ando is such a natural, I don't know why he never made another movie. Their chemistry is very realistic; it's really cute when Niven starts to describe a battle story and then Ando's imagination takes over, giving the audience a combination of a flashback and a fantasy to watch. I absolutely loved this movie, and I highly recommend you rent it during your next family movie night. It's family friendly, and has laughs, dramatic tension, action, very nice music, great acting, and a story that just might require you to bring your Kleenexes.

PAPER TIGER is an intriguing little comedy thriller with an unusual storyline. The film as a whole has a number of diverse ingredients which gel together quite well and lead up to a satisfying whole. It's entirely forgotten these days, despite the starring roles and the presence of Hollywood director Ken Annakin (SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON), which is a bit of a shame.David Niven nails his character just right in playing a Walter Mitty type who regales his associates with stories of derring-do in the war (the flashback scenes are very funny). He travels to a made-up Far Eastern country to become English tutor to a Japanese ambassador, and the film chronicles their friendship. Ando, the child actor, stars in his only screen role and is very endearing, but all eyes are on the excellent Toshiro Mifune playing his father. I noted that Mifune nearly got his son kidnapped in Kurosawa's HIGH & LOW, well it really does happen here! The film has a fairly slow first half although the second half picks up with all manner of terrorist activities and some choppy action. The latter scenes with Niven and Ando are very well handled and the film narrowly avoids being overly sentimental, remaining funny instead. The Malaysian locations standing in for the made-up country are fun and Hardy Kruger is great as a reporter. Overall, PAPER TIGER is a fun, warming little thriller with Niven on top form.

The story is admittedly very simple: elderly British "Major" Walter Bradbury (David Niven) is engaged by the Japanese ambassador to an unnamed Southeast Asian country, Kagoyama (Toshirô Mifune) as tutor to his enchanting 11-year-old son Koichi (Kazuhito Ando). "Mister Bladbelly" soon wins the reverence of the ever-trusting and perfectly-mannered Koichi by spinning yarns about his heroic wartime exploits that could hardly be further removed from his quiet nonentitous life, but is unexpectedly and severely put to the test when they are both kidnapped by guerrillas.However simple though, the story is still a good one and it is fantastically well and charmingly acted by all three of the main characters. Anybody who has known a paper tiger, especially the more amiable types who, like Niven, have twinkles in their eyes gently hinting at their harmless fraud, will surely warm to his authentic depiction of one.Paper Tiger is a gripping story, alternately funny, tense and moving, but above all it is a thoroughly warm-hearted and tenderly told tale of redemption.Edmund Marlowe, author of Alexander's Choice, a novel of Eton, www.amazon.com/dp/1481222112

You would be forgiven at first into thinking that this was an old Walt Disney children's film. The humour is family orientated and typically weak - this type of film always has an annoying American character in holiday mode who pops up every so often. However the story is quite clever, albeit moralistic - the moral is don't pretend to be something you ain't.The main problem with this film is that you are unsure what kind of viewers it is actually aimed at. In between the "sweet" scenes of David Niven and his young cheeky Asian charge there are shootings,terrorist bombings and assassination attempts - hardly Walt Disney.However, the story is quite good with nice appearances from familiar faces and, apart from the rather insipid and soppy vocal version of the theme tune, is wrapped up fairly well. A good Saturday-afternoon-with-nothing-to-do sort-of-film