1966 - THE FIGHTING PRINCE OF DONGEAL, a Disney swashbuckler

 The Disney company films another British based swashbuckler along the lines of their earlier film The Story of Robin Hood.  This film supposedly is based on an actual Irish clan leader, Hugh Roe O'Donnell. As is usually the case, a quick scan of the internet reveals that the real Hugh Roe O'Donnell came to a very different end than the one in the Disney film.

The film is essentially about the British repression of the Irish and O'Donell's attempts to rally the various Irish clans to oppose the British.  The film has fairly decent action and is a typically good production from the Disney British studios.

 

The cast of the film is also fairly decent, Peter McEnery is the "Fighting Prince,"  McEnery wasn't apparently the biggest fan of appearing in Disney movies and was an actor in the Royal Shakespeare Company later in his career.  Susan Hampshire is the love interest, she was always a reliable presence in film and television.  Gordan Jackson is the bad guy and he seemed like he was in about every other British film in the 50's and 60's.

 

Anyway the running time is a brisk 110 minutes, the film was written by  Robert Westerby and Robert T. Reilly.