This Sabatini adaptation is set in 1651 Merrie England, with Puritans disrupting May Pole Dancers.
Roistering Norwood (Elvey's Sherlock Holmes) and his Royalist buddy recount his back story, where the evil brothers killed his family and took over his ancestral home. "Had my son lived, men would have no cause to call me The Tavern Knight."
We get the well staged battle, which comes with a reasonable supply of foot soldiers and cavalry but is made less imposing by lack of camera movement.
After this, Norwood takes a newcomer under his protection and, in the older man's debt, the youth is bound by oath to act as he directs, no matter if it goes against anything he holds dear - hmm!
Action shifts to Castle Marleigh, Norwood's one time family manor, now controlled by the murderous brothers. Norwood finds himself doing Cyrano & Roxanne with the young man's intended, who is given to chasing butterflies. Soon heavy steel weapons are being handled like the characters mean real harm.
We get a chase with a spectacular - possibly unintended - horse fall along with with some attempts as stylish handling, like the reduced frame for the flash back and iris intro scenes. A telling close-up of the door knock compares with the pistol silhouette in Elvey's Bleak House.
For all it's limitations, archaic handling and content, this one still moves along effectively enough to hold attention.
Roistering Norwood (Elvey's Sherlock Holmes) and his Royalist buddy recount his back story, where the evil brothers killed his family and took over his ancestral home. "Had my son lived, men would have no cause to call me The Tavern Knight."
We get the well staged battle, which comes with a reasonable supply of foot soldiers and cavalry but is made less imposing by lack of camera movement.
After this, Norwood takes a newcomer under his protection and, in the older man's debt, the youth is bound by oath to act as he directs, no matter if it goes against anything he holds dear - hmm!
Action shifts to Castle Marleigh, Norwood's one time family manor, now controlled by the murderous brothers. Norwood finds himself doing Cyrano & Roxanne with the young man's intended, who is given to chasing butterflies. Soon heavy steel weapons are being handled like the characters mean real harm.
We get a chase with a spectacular - possibly unintended - horse fall along with with some attempts as stylish handling, like the reduced frame for the flash back and iris intro scenes. A telling close-up of the door knock compares with the pistol silhouette in Elvey's Bleak House.
For all it's limitations, archaic handling and content, this one still moves along effectively enough to hold attention.