Customer Reviews

Black Arrow [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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."

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.

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.

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-