Product Details

• Actors: Louis Hayward, Janet Blair, George Macready, Edgar Buchanan, Rhys Williams
• Directors: Gordon Douglas
• Writers: David P. Sheppard, Richard Schayer, Robert Louis Stevenson, Tom Seller
• Producers: Edward Small, Grant Whytock
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: May 7, 1996
• Run Time: 76 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0800132386
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #234,193 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Medieval Drama on a Modest Scale, September 23, 2000

By 

Parisonn of Atlantis (Minneapolis, Minnesota) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Arrow [VHS] (VHS Tape)

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."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bullseye for "The Black Arrow", February 11, 2011

By 

Karen A. Amrhein "Karen A." (Baltimore, Maryland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Black Arrow (DVD)

The Louis Hayward film version of Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Black Arrow" is my favorite. The movie is a top-notch swashbuckler, with fine performances by Hayward, Janet Blair -- a spirited co-star, George Macready in another well-wrought villainous turn as Sir Daniel, and the always amusing, if anachronistic, Edgar Buchanan -- straight out of a Western and into 15th-century England!

The story, at a brisk 76 minutes, moves along apace, with fine archery, swordplay, and a brutal concluding joust punctuating a compelling tale of high romance.

The Sony Pictures "Columbia Classics By Request" DVD is bare bones: just the film with 10-minute auto chapters. It is not widescreen, as Amazon advertises -- the film was released in 1948, some five years before the debut of Cinemascope, but the print is pristine and the DVD is well-worth the $20 sale price.

Highly recommended for fanciers of the swashbuckler, and classic film fans in general.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bullseye for "The Black Arrow", February 11, 2011

By 

Karen A. Amrhein "Karen A." (Baltimore, Maryland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Black Arrow [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The Louis Hayward film version of Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Black Arrow" is my favorite. The movie is a top-notch swashbuckler, with fine performances by Hayward, Janet Blair -- a spirited co-star, George Macready in another well-wrought villainous turn as Sir Daniel, and the always amusing, if anachronistic, Edgar Buchanan -- straight out of a Western and into 15th-century England!

The story, at a brisk 76 minutes, moves along apace, with fine archery, swordplay, and a brutal concluding joust punctuating a compelling tale of high romance.

Highly recommended for fanciers of the swashbuckler, and classic film fans in general. The VHS picture quality is actually pretty good.

Note -- This is also available on DVD:
The Sony Pictures "Columbia Classics By Request" DVD is bare bones: just the film with 10-minute auto chapters. It is not widescreen, as Amazon advertises -- the film was released in 1948, some five years before the debut of Cinemascope -- but the print is pristine and the DVD is well-worth the $20 sale price.