Phil Karlson is known for his tough crime films and Westerns but at Columbia he made some swashbucklers - this and Lorna Doone. It's a sort of sequel to The Count of Monte Cristo - John Derek is the son of a count (I don't think it's the count, but we see a statue of the count so it's in that universe) who is murdered by Anthony Quinn, who the count discovered was embezzling. John Derek pretends to go along with it but then puts on a mask and gets busy with derring do.
Quinn acts with panache, clearly well aware he should be playing the lead but also that he has the best part. Jody Lawrance is fun as the girl. In the final sword fight between Derek and Quinn there's a bit where Lawrence takes over sword fighting duties while Derek is momentarily injured - that's cute never seen that before. I think Karlson had a soft spot for Lawrence. Or maybe he felt she had more life than Derek, who is pretty though not that lively.
In Derek's defence he doesn't have much to play. When it started off and he was pretended to be injured yet running around swashbuckling I thought 'oh he's going the Zorro route' and that would've given him something to play - pretending to be cowardly, falling in love with Lawrance who doesn't know the truth, etc. But he just puts on a mask and tells Lawrence who he is pretty quickly.
This is fine. Decent production values.
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