The English civil war hasn't been that terribly popular with movie makers, even swashbucklers - probably because while the Roundheads stood for things like parliamentary supremacy and democracy, the Cavaliers really were supporting a dictator - but they were the ones with the glamour (and better uniforms). So the heroes of this are Royalists trying to save King Charles I. We know they're not going to succeed, so then it becomes about whether our heroes are going to escape.
This film does try something new for swashbucklers - many of the characters are conflicted. It's mostly set at an old English house (a good idea - helps hide the low budget) with Lionel Jeffries in fine form as a roundhead keen to kick some royalist but - but his daughter June Thorburn is a royalist and his lieutenant Oliver Reed (excellent) is in love with Thorburn and so ends up betraying his cause.
These characters are a lot more complex than the lead - Jack Hedley who is the Scarlet Blade, a royalist do-gooder who was reported as killed in a battle and goes around the countryside using his non de plume. This sounds Zorro ish but the point of Zorro was he got to pretend to be a toff, which this doesn't do. It's a rather thankless role for Hedley, who isn't very charismatic (most romantic male leads for Hammer weren't), but the other male leads make up for it.
There's not enough action, but at least it's different: the big battle at the end is kind of pointless, Jeffries lets his daughter and her lover go free at the end, Jeffries shoots Reed. Not a success but a bit more different than say A Challenge for Robin Hood.
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