Columbia went into swasbucklers in a big way after World War Two - they were usually produced by Sam Katzman or Edward Small. This one is a Small effort, based on the Robert Louis Stevenson novel with the hero aged up to make a vehicle for Louis Hayward, and a dash of Robin Hood and Hamlet sprinkled into the story.
Hayward returns from the wars to find his dad dead. George Macready blames another noble, whose daughter Janet Blair is under the control of Macready. There's a sassy fiar, outlaws in the woods, a trial by combat at the end, a cameo by the future Richard III in a sort of sympathetic but not really part (he's depicted as pompous)
Director Gordon Douglas does a decent job and there's fine production values even if in black and white. But it's a sluggish tale. Uninspired support cast. Not very engaging story. I had that issue with the novel (which is different to this).
Some decent Hayward-Blair flirting but that's about it.
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