Fun. Ticks all the boxes for the genre. Vicious lesbian guard. Showers. Mud wrestling. Escape. Revolutionaries. Third world setting. All the characters are different. It's made with energy. Star turns from Pam Grier, Roberta Collins. Sid Haig fun. The movie works. Stephanie Rothman had the film rewritten by Don Spencer - I wonder what her contribution was.
It's a shame she and Jack Hill seem to clash.
I watched this because it was on Tubi. Robert Shaw is credited as the star but he's not in it. The hero is Alec Cunes as Woodes Rogers, offering a pardon to pirates including Blackbeard. Ralph Smart directed.
It's fun. Low budget but big enough to have a pirate ship and taverns and costumes.
British musical which I don't think made much of a splash but is quite elaborate with large production values and elaborate dance numbers. Leslie Bricusse did the score which is fine - nothing memorable but pleasant enogh.
The star is Joe Brown who I'm not that familiar with. He's got a boy next door face and spiky blonde hair.
The plot has him as a fan of a French actoress (Sophie Hardy) who is in town looking for a hat. Like that's the story. It's got a dash of Roman Holiday and Hardy is far too attractive for Brown. Stubbs is the girl who loves Brown, I think. But more of a conneciton between lead boy and girl would've worked wonders.
Still Sid James offers from dependable support and the film's determination to be fun is endearing. They threw a lot at it. Sidney Hayers directs his little backside off.
Stars off as a heisty movie then becomes about a serial killer at the circus. One of many films round this time based on an Edgar Wallace story.
The last is heaps of fun - Klaus Kinski, Victor Maddern as crooks, Leo Genn as a cop, Suzy Kendall and Christopher Lee as circus folk. Never quite as much fun as I want it to be. Attractive women and circus stuff great like the mean little person just not enough of it. I got bored.
Starts off fantastically then sort of gets bogged down, doesn't seem to really dig into its concept or go spinning off in interesting directions and too much time is spent with Amy Schumer and her random attractive new friend. The best bits are those when the characters are bonkers and/or seem to be ad libbing.
Random thoughts:
- looks gorgeous
- Lewis Milestone doesn't understand story
- Maureen O'Hara was right how the original script was wrecked - does this mean her other claims in her memoir were right? That John Ford made out with a guy? That her husband was murdered? That Peter Lawford and Richard Boone were busted in a male brothel?
- Lawford and Boone are dressed the same but Boone makes all the decisions
- why set this in 1900?
- opening scenes may has well have been shot in Hollywood because they take place at night
- fascinating mess.
The rhythm is a little bit off in spots - I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Like Dalton's performance. And like that when it gets in the groove it's extremely entertaining. Myram d'Abo's character is sweeter than usual but it works for the story - an innocent in the world of killers - but they give her a world class skill (cello) and she's European.
Consistently strong action and a superb array of suppor characters - Jerome Krabbe's buoyant defector, Joe Don Baker's military enthusiast arms dealer, the blonde assassin, John Rhys' tough Russian, Art Malik's Afghanistan fighter.
Love John Barry's music score, the exotic settings, defending Gibraltar.
