An ironical adventure, witty , fast-paced and competently shot . Cowardly swashbuckler Captain Harry Flashman (Malcolm McDowell) , wanting to enter high society and while romancing renowned courtesan Lola Montez (Florinda Bolkan) is used to advance to a political cause , being forced by Otto Von Bismarck (Oliver Reed) to impersonate a Prussian nobleman and marry a duchess (Britt Ekland) in order to help him enlarge his hold over German duchies . But Bismarck has something more dark in mind for Harry and the Prince . The greatest swordsman of them all!¨. See Capt. Harry Flashman surrender his way to victory!.Swash - As it's never been buckled before!
Attractive film with a few real-life period characters thrown in for good measure such as Otto Von Bismarck , Lola Montes or King Ludwig of Bavaria . This is an entertaining swashbuckler , full of action , adventures , occasional amusing gags , romance , comedy with tongue-in-cheek and broad slapdash and , of course , lot of fencing . The plot is simple and slight , similar to classic Prisoner of Zenda , as Harry Flashman is recruited against his will by substituting a person for a look-a-like Prussian Prince in order to get some sinister purports . An acceptable picture , but after an opening which promises some kind of riotous comic strip of Victorian England and a particularly nice scene involving a boxing-match , the story starts parodying itself too loosely and overtly , eventually overreaching itself utterly with an unimaginative and endless duel between Malcolm McDowell and Alan Bates .Big budget production and spectacular art design by Terence Marsh including glamorous gowns , luxurious sets , as well as colorful cinematography by Geoffrey Unsworth and lively soundtrack by Ken Thorne adding classic music . Script by novelist George McDonald Fraser himself and based on his series of novels featuring the Flashman role . Main and support cast are pretty good . Malcolm McDowell gives a sympathetic acting as the coward , cad , lecher officer who always seems to come off inadvertently heroic while being coerced by Bismarck into impersonating an aristocrat . Malcolm is well accompanied by a great cast , being the main diversion to find out the fine plethora of Brit actors appearing here and there , including the following ones : Oliver Reed as the nasty Otto Von Bismarck , Alan Bates as his contender , Britt Ekland as the gorgeous , sex-hungry princess , Tom Bell , Joss Ackland , Christopher Cazenove , Michael Hordern , Henry Cooper , Lionel Jeffries , Alastair Sim , Michael Hordern, Alan Howard , Bo Hoskins , among others.
The motion picture lavishly produced by Denis O'Dell and David V. Picker was well directed by Richard Lester providing attractive images in its own right , being filmed in his peculiar style coupled with typical surrealist comic touches . As the director's visual style is as witty and strong as always . At the beginning Lester directed various Beatles vehicles and subsequently made known comedies : ¨The knack¨ , a satire : ¨The bed sitting room¨ and a drama : ¨Petulia¨ . He got a big success with ¨The Three Musketeers¨ (1973), which he shot simultaneously with ¨The Four musketeers¨ (1974) for producer Ilya Salkind , resurrected his career . When the Salkinds (Ilya and his father Alexander Salkind) were in the midst of filming ¨Superman¨ (1978) simultaneously with its sequel, Lester was hired as a supervising producer, then took over the filming of the sequel, ¨Superman II¨ (1980), when original director Richard Donner was fired . The sequel was a financial and critical success , and he was hired to direct the far-less successful ¨Superman III¨ (1983) . At the end of the 1980s, Lester returned to the storyline that had revitalized his career back in the early 1970s , filming a second sequel to "The Three Musketeers" titled : ¨The return of the musketeers¨. ¨Royal Flash¨ (1975) Rating : 6.5/10 . Decent and passable swashbuckler/adventure/costumer film.
Attractive film with a few real-life period characters thrown in for good measure such as Otto Von Bismarck , Lola Montes or King Ludwig of Bavaria . This is an entertaining swashbuckler , full of action , adventures , occasional amusing gags , romance , comedy with tongue-in-cheek and broad slapdash and , of course , lot of fencing . The plot is simple and slight , similar to classic Prisoner of Zenda , as Harry Flashman is recruited against his will by substituting a person for a look-a-like Prussian Prince in order to get some sinister purports . An acceptable picture , but after an opening which promises some kind of riotous comic strip of Victorian England and a particularly nice scene involving a boxing-match , the story starts parodying itself too loosely and overtly , eventually overreaching itself utterly with an unimaginative and endless duel between Malcolm McDowell and Alan Bates .Big budget production and spectacular art design by Terence Marsh including glamorous gowns , luxurious sets , as well as colorful cinematography by Geoffrey Unsworth and lively soundtrack by Ken Thorne adding classic music . Script by novelist George McDonald Fraser himself and based on his series of novels featuring the Flashman role . Main and support cast are pretty good . Malcolm McDowell gives a sympathetic acting as the coward , cad , lecher officer who always seems to come off inadvertently heroic while being coerced by Bismarck into impersonating an aristocrat . Malcolm is well accompanied by a great cast , being the main diversion to find out the fine plethora of Brit actors appearing here and there , including the following ones : Oliver Reed as the nasty Otto Von Bismarck , Alan Bates as his contender , Britt Ekland as the gorgeous , sex-hungry princess , Tom Bell , Joss Ackland , Christopher Cazenove , Michael Hordern , Henry Cooper , Lionel Jeffries , Alastair Sim , Michael Hordern, Alan Howard , Bo Hoskins , among others.
The motion picture lavishly produced by Denis O'Dell and David V. Picker was well directed by Richard Lester providing attractive images in its own right , being filmed in his peculiar style coupled with typical surrealist comic touches . As the director's visual style is as witty and strong as always . At the beginning Lester directed various Beatles vehicles and subsequently made known comedies : ¨The knack¨ , a satire : ¨The bed sitting room¨ and a drama : ¨Petulia¨ . He got a big success with ¨The Three Musketeers¨ (1973), which he shot simultaneously with ¨The Four musketeers¨ (1974) for producer Ilya Salkind , resurrected his career . When the Salkinds (Ilya and his father Alexander Salkind) were in the midst of filming ¨Superman¨ (1978) simultaneously with its sequel, Lester was hired as a supervising producer, then took over the filming of the sequel, ¨Superman II¨ (1980), when original director Richard Donner was fired . The sequel was a financial and critical success , and he was hired to direct the far-less successful ¨Superman III¨ (1983) . At the end of the 1980s, Lester returned to the storyline that had revitalized his career back in the early 1970s , filming a second sequel to "The Three Musketeers" titled : ¨The return of the musketeers¨. ¨Royal Flash¨ (1975) Rating : 6.5/10 . Decent and passable swashbuckler/adventure/costumer film.