Oh Errol...just oh.

I'm a big fan of sword and swashbuckling movies. Flynn is usually one of my favorites for his roles like Robin Hood, Peter Blood and Geoffrey Thorpe. However, playing the historical Prince Edward was a major misstep.

The film itself if pretty light on logic. Prince Edward (Flynn) remains in France after his father has conquered the French. He impresses the poor French but incites the lords and the rich. They refuse to submit to his authority and battles ensue. Somewhere in there, Edwards woman, Joan, (in history she was his blood cousin) gets kidnapped and he has to rescue her. That about sums up the plot.

The movie is fine. There is no effort at character development. Still, its fun fluff, but Flynn looks awful in it. He's pretty much the same age as Prince Edward at the time, but Flynn looks older and worn out than 45. He was having financial issues and was being harassed by the IRS so I guess that's understandable. Joanne Dru as Joan is pretty, but one dimensional. The plot calls for her to just be a damsel in distress. Peter Finch as Count De Ville is about as cookie cutter of a villain as you can get. Yvonne Furneaux as a French bar wench (in almost the same role she played in Flynn's Master of Bellantre) is lovely to look at and helps out Edward.

The battle scenes are tame by comparison to some of the scenes from earlier Flynn films. This is Flynn's last swashbuckling role and its probably a good thing. Even though he was still young at age 45, he just didn't have the energy of his earlier performances.



My memory foam pillow says it can't remember my face. I can tell its lying.