Plenty of good stuff on display here - the colour, a decent budget, lots of action, Stevenson's source material, Errol Flynn being perfectly cast as the dissolute brother who goes to fight for Bonnie Prince Charlie while good brother Anthony Steel stays behind, Flynn's by play with Roger Livesey.
They've made Flynn heroic, which isn't consistent with the text, but I understand why they did it - that brother simply had more interesting adventures, going off and being a pirate and what not. If you want tot make the other brother the hero you'd need to spend time with him - and the piece would be less of a swashbuckler and more of a gothic noir.
But having said that they make the other brother (Steel) a goodie. Flynn thinks Steel has betrayed him, but he's wrong which is fake drama and dull. And makes Steel's presence in the whole movie pointless. If you make Flynn good, make Steel bad - wouldn't be hard: he covets Flynn's popularity, and love interest. Steel being good is kind of pointless. Maybe it could've worked if there had been another villain - but it turns out Flynn was betrayed by a girl who loved him.
The second flaw is the romance between Flynn and Beatrice Campbell is so flat. It doesn't work on the page - he's clearly a lousy boyfriend, the romance will last five seconds once the film is over - and the playing between the two doesn't help.
So those are two big flaws. It's a shame because they could have been easily fixed.
Flynn was clearly aging and getting on but it actually suits the part. It is one of his better 50s films.
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