You’d expect the Italian film industry to embrace Errol the lover and party boy, and so they have: the rapidly-aging legend is extremely well cast as a Don Juan type, a lecherous Italian noble who gets involved in dukedom politics. Indeed, the film owes more than a debt to The Adventures of Don Juan, with lots of jokes about Errol being a womanizer yet at that same time being loyal to the government, and a subplot where the duchy tries to force the male population into matrimony (this is never quite integrated into the story as well as it could have).
Despite the great role for Errol, this is one of his lesser movies. Milton Krim’s script and direction lack spark, and the film is fatally undercast: Cesar Danova has no charisma as Errol’s partner in crime (oh, for Alan Hale or David Niven to have played this part), and the villains are weak; Gina Lollobrigida is beautiful as the female lead but she has little chemistry with Errol.
There are some impressive sets and costumes plus Jack Cardiff’s cinematography (though the print I saw was pretty crappy I’m guessing it was just the print) and some okay action. Errol gets to pretend to be a coward in one scene and is surprisingly convincing. He fights an above-average duel at the end.
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