"It's about time SOMEBODY appreciated women!" Robert Louis Stevenson's swashbuckling novel "The Black Arrow" is given the strictly B-movie treatment in this 1948 adaptation. The plot, set in Merrie 'ol England, revolves around a young (ha,ha) man who is determined to learn the truth about his father's mysterious death. This is, in fact, the kind of film you want to watch with a bunch of friends who enjoy making fun of stupid movies. Highlights include: - A main character who is supposed to be in his early twenties, played by Louis Hayward, but who looks to be about a million years old. - A scene where an important character is stabbed to death, although it is fairly obvious he has been "stabbed" between his arm and his waist. There is also no wound apparent when he collapses to the ground. - The goofiest rescue scene in many a moon, where our hero and his accomplice storm a castle to stop a wedding. While the hero isn't looking his accomplice gets drunk. The hero then gets stopped by castle guards, and while he neither attempts to escape nor attacks his opponents, he does act very surprised when they throw him in the pokey. Where did he think they were taking him, to the rose garden? - A heroine who seems barely able to suppress her revulsion of our hero and finally - Many characters who look alike and have similar sounding names (Sir Brackley, Sir Sedley, etc.), making jolly confusion for all.
Strictly a renter, or for hard core swashbuckling fans only. The book, needless to say, is much better. And remember kids, the bible is not to be used solely to absorb arrows from thine enemies. GRADE: C-
Medieval Drama on a Modest Scale Louis Hayward returns from the War of the Roses to find his father murdered and his uncle now in charge of his estate.
While this late-medieval drama lacks the budget, the color photography, and the big-name cast needed to give it the "sweep" which it deserves, the resulting effort moves briskly enough to hold one's interest for an efficiently-plotted 76 minutes. While the characters spend a bit too much time explaining the story to each other, or in reading messages which contain still more explanations, there are also enough sword-fights, jousts, cracking whips, and flying arrows to satisfy fans of the genre.
George Macready makes a silky-smooth villain as the treacherous uncle but Louis Hayward, pushing forty at the time, is much too old to play a character who's often referred to "the boy" or "the lad."
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