At first glance, this film comes off as a pure example escapism, something that may be extremely dated, but is just plain fun. Add to that, it stars great actors like the enormously underrated Douglas Fairbanks Jr (see Little Caesar, the 1937 Prisoner of Zenda, and Angels Over Broadway to see what I mean), Maureen O'Hara, Walter Slezak, Anthony Quinn, and Jane Greer, AND it is in that "glorious Technicolor".
What a disappointment, lets get the redeeming qualities over with first.
Maureen O'Hara, who I'm surprised has received negative reviews for her performance, is very good in this role. Like many of her roles, her character is ahead of her time. In this film she's strong, independent, ruthless, and never once in the film shows any real vulnerability. Despite her negative qualities (she at times comes off as vain, selfish, and really only caring about number 1), she never came off as unlikable.
The sets are nice too, and they sure don't make color films like they used too.
Now on to the rest. First, there is little action, and what is offered is nothing to brag home about. This is all dialogue, there is rarely a moment when any character doesn't yap excessively. I can always handle films, even "adventures" such as these, to be more dialogue and no action, but here, all the characters (except O'Hara's) are VERY poorly developed and one dimensional, and the story is bland. And to make matters worse, the film runs about 20 minutes too long.
Douglas Fairbanks Jr, and Anthony Quinn, otherwise good actors, REALLY chew up the scenery in this one. Fairbanks seems to be impersonating his dad, and what that means is an extremely expressive and stagey performance. Quinn, on the other hand, looks constipated for the first three quarters of the film and hams it up big time as the film reaches its end.
Director Richard Wallace really made a mistake for underusing two very talented actors of the cast. Walter Slezak (who had a great character role in Wallace's "The Fallen Sparrow", you'd think the guy'd give him the same sort of attention in this one) is, like almost everyone, one dimensional, and smoldering Jane Greer is given nothing more to do then to play servant girl to O'Hara, with about ten seconds in which she gets to show some sort of character. I wouldn't have minded staring at her (looking very sexy in the background) during the whole movie, my grade may have even gone up a star or two, but she unfortunately disappears 50 minutes into the film.
If it were shorter, the hammy performances of Fairbanks and Quinn and O'Hara's presence would have made this much more entertaining, but sadly, its 2 hours too long with a weak script and a slow pace.
Not worth watching.
What a disappointment, lets get the redeeming qualities over with first.
Maureen O'Hara, who I'm surprised has received negative reviews for her performance, is very good in this role. Like many of her roles, her character is ahead of her time. In this film she's strong, independent, ruthless, and never once in the film shows any real vulnerability. Despite her negative qualities (she at times comes off as vain, selfish, and really only caring about number 1), she never came off as unlikable.
The sets are nice too, and they sure don't make color films like they used too.
Now on to the rest. First, there is little action, and what is offered is nothing to brag home about. This is all dialogue, there is rarely a moment when any character doesn't yap excessively. I can always handle films, even "adventures" such as these, to be more dialogue and no action, but here, all the characters (except O'Hara's) are VERY poorly developed and one dimensional, and the story is bland. And to make matters worse, the film runs about 20 minutes too long.
Douglas Fairbanks Jr, and Anthony Quinn, otherwise good actors, REALLY chew up the scenery in this one. Fairbanks seems to be impersonating his dad, and what that means is an extremely expressive and stagey performance. Quinn, on the other hand, looks constipated for the first three quarters of the film and hams it up big time as the film reaches its end.
Director Richard Wallace really made a mistake for underusing two very talented actors of the cast. Walter Slezak (who had a great character role in Wallace's "The Fallen Sparrow", you'd think the guy'd give him the same sort of attention in this one) is, like almost everyone, one dimensional, and smoldering Jane Greer is given nothing more to do then to play servant girl to O'Hara, with about ten seconds in which she gets to show some sort of character. I wouldn't have minded staring at her (looking very sexy in the background) during the whole movie, my grade may have even gone up a star or two, but she unfortunately disappears 50 minutes into the film.
If it were shorter, the hammy performances of Fairbanks and Quinn and O'Hara's presence would have made this much more entertaining, but sadly, its 2 hours too long with a weak script and a slow pace.
Not worth watching.