It's a story about mixed up identities and conflicting loyalties during the American Revolution, more sassy comedy than anything else, although Kirk Douglas barely escapes the noose.
Good cast, too. Not just Kirk Douglas but Burt Lancaster. They made many films together. I counted them. There were one thousand, four hundred, and thirty two, not counting cartoon voiceovers. Lawrence Olivier gives a sterling performance as the quick-witted and likable General Burgoyne. Anyone who wants to see how the original General Burgoyne lived is free to visit his preserved house in Wilmington, North Carolina. Also in the cast are other familiar faces: Harry Andrews and Mervyn Johns, whom you'll recognize as Bob Cratchet from the best of the "Christmas Carol" movies.
But I believe a special round of applause is due to Allan Cutherbertson. I'm not sure the poor guy ever played anything other than stuffy, stiff-necked, military officers, usually with an offensive little ginger mustache. He was the British officer who wanted to let the evesdropping laundry boy go in "The Guns of Navarone." Here, his attempt to stop Lancaster from blowing up a powder dump and ending a battle leads to a bout of athletics and gives Lancaster a chance to leap around and fling furniture across the room.
George Bernard Shaw's play was written sometime in the 1890s, I think. The dialog is of the period but the wit still tickles. "Give a rebel enough rope and he'll hang somebody else." The lads handle the somewhat starchy lines with aplomb. Olivier, of course, had no trouble at all convincing me that he was General Burgoyne.
Good cast, too. Not just Kirk Douglas but Burt Lancaster. They made many films together. I counted them. There were one thousand, four hundred, and thirty two, not counting cartoon voiceovers. Lawrence Olivier gives a sterling performance as the quick-witted and likable General Burgoyne. Anyone who wants to see how the original General Burgoyne lived is free to visit his preserved house in Wilmington, North Carolina. Also in the cast are other familiar faces: Harry Andrews and Mervyn Johns, whom you'll recognize as Bob Cratchet from the best of the "Christmas Carol" movies.
But I believe a special round of applause is due to Allan Cutherbertson. I'm not sure the poor guy ever played anything other than stuffy, stiff-necked, military officers, usually with an offensive little ginger mustache. He was the British officer who wanted to let the evesdropping laundry boy go in "The Guns of Navarone." Here, his attempt to stop Lancaster from blowing up a powder dump and ending a battle leads to a bout of athletics and gives Lancaster a chance to leap around and fling furniture across the room.
George Bernard Shaw's play was written sometime in the 1890s, I think. The dialog is of the period but the wit still tickles. "Give a rebel enough rope and he'll hang somebody else." The lads handle the somewhat starchy lines with aplomb. Olivier, of course, had no trouble at all convincing me that he was General Burgoyne.