I was inspired to watch this after a positive mention by George MacDonald Fraser in Hollywood History of the World – it’s the sort of film you could imagine the author of Flashman enjoying, a historical romp with real characters popping in and out, like General Lee, Count Bismark, and a slightly obscure (to English speaking counties) war – the Prussian invasion of Austria.
Yvonne de Carlo became a film star with her role as the Lola Montez like entertainer who gets involved in spying and winds up in America. The protagonist is actually Rod Cameron, who is a sort of imitation Clarke Gable womanising tough guy, a war correspondent who strikes up a relationship with de Carlo, helping her flee Prussian spies. (The film feels as though it was written for Jon Hall and Maria Montez and Turhan Bey – as in some of those films the hero role switches half way, it stops being about Cameron and is more about the Confederate. The de Carlo part mostly has her looking sexy, being foreign and doing a bunch of dances).
This film is all over the place – we're at Appamatox, then Europe for the Austria-Prussian War, then out west where a saloon is held up by a former Confederate turned outlaw, then they are in San Francisco. They throw in a Chinese medicine man too and end with a swordfight. But it's fast paced, silly and lots of fun.
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