The Napoleonic wars take on a comic twist with an "I'm so amusing!" attitude that makes it not quite so funny. It's history meets a combination of Mel Brooks, Monty Pyton and Benny Hill with a bit of the 40's style of the Gainsborough films thrown in. Based on stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ("Sherlock Holmes"), this is obviously influenced by the success of the Oscar Winning "Tom Jones", and ends up there with later historical spoofs, "Joseph Andrews" and "Yellowbeard", which were complete disasters.
The legendary Eli Wallach is commanding as Napoleon, but his character becomes a joke from the get go with unfunny jokes about his height and made to look like a buffoon. That worked with Mel Brooks' assail on Hitler but here, it just isn't funny. Peter McEnerey plays the title character, a pompous colonel, tongue too far in cheek to be funny. Only Walkach and Claudia Cardinale as a Spanish countess are worthy of praise. The film is handsome to look at, but has a muffled sound recording that sounds like very bad dubbing.
The legendary Eli Wallach is commanding as Napoleon, but his character becomes a joke from the get go with unfunny jokes about his height and made to look like a buffoon. That worked with Mel Brooks' assail on Hitler but here, it just isn't funny. Peter McEnerey plays the title character, a pompous colonel, tongue too far in cheek to be funny. Only Walkach and Claudia Cardinale as a Spanish countess are worthy of praise. The film is handsome to look at, but has a muffled sound recording that sounds like very bad dubbing.