1975 - ROYAL FLASH, Richard Lester returns to the swashbuckler

Panned by the critics upon the release and ignored by the audience, Royal Flash does have a lot of the old Richard Lester touch at times.  The screenplay was by the writer of the Flashman books, George MacDonald Fraser.  Fraser's clever idea was to create a character who was for the most part a coward and a complete "cad" as they liked to say in Merry Old England and stick him in world changing situations like the American Civil War or in this case the political maneuvering of Otto Von Bismark.

Lester appeared to be aware that audiences would think he was making another version of The Three Musketeers, so he worked hard to find a new spin of the swashbuckler genre.  The cast was certainly interesting, Malcolm McDowell mister intense in films like If and A Clockwork Orange is the cowardly Harry Flashman, Florinda Balkin is the famous and real life prostitute Lola Montes and Oliver Reed is Otto Von Bismark.

 

There are lots of great British character actors throughout the film, Michael Hordern, Lionel Jeffries, Britt Eckland and Alister Sim to name a few.  Jeffries is particularly amusing.

The plot of the film borrows liberally from The Prisoner of Zenda to which Lester adds a lot of his famous visual gags. The film is funny if maybe a little slow at times but it is entertaining.

Running time 102 minutes.