A fine show of acrobats! A fable for fun!
Burt Lancaster and Nick Cravat indulge themselves in long leaps and vaults, pirouetting in mid-air, swinging on tapestries and chandeliers, and baffling the tyrant Ulrich with their tricks... Plenty of action!
The film is a flamboyant spoof of the Robin Hood genre, set against the castle battlements and banquet halls of medieval Lombardy... Ideally cast opposite Lancaster's swashbuckling Dardo were Virginia Mayo as the obligatory lady-fair, and Robert Douglas and Frank Allenby as the suavest of villains...
To play his mute sidekick, Piccolo, Lancaster engaged his old friend and circus partner, Nick Cravat. The result was a joyful team... Together they battled spearmen with blazing torches, and leaped around castle balconies...
"The Flame and the Arrow" is a colorful adventure film with a great closing shot: Lancaster swinging in a series of circular movements on metalwork high above the courtyard of an old castle...
Lancaster's acrobatics boosted his box-office value, and so did another swashbuckler, 'The Crimson Pirate.'
...I saw this movie, with my little brother Paul, when it first came out in Lebanon, in Beirut, 47 years ago... I was ten, and today I still remember each Technicolor frame, because it was so enchanting and beautiful It was such a particular time for the kids we were...
Burt Lancaster and Nick Cravat indulge themselves in long leaps and vaults, pirouetting in mid-air, swinging on tapestries and chandeliers, and baffling the tyrant Ulrich with their tricks... Plenty of action!
The film is a flamboyant spoof of the Robin Hood genre, set against the castle battlements and banquet halls of medieval Lombardy... Ideally cast opposite Lancaster's swashbuckling Dardo were Virginia Mayo as the obligatory lady-fair, and Robert Douglas and Frank Allenby as the suavest of villains...
To play his mute sidekick, Piccolo, Lancaster engaged his old friend and circus partner, Nick Cravat. The result was a joyful team... Together they battled spearmen with blazing torches, and leaped around castle balconies...
"The Flame and the Arrow" is a colorful adventure film with a great closing shot: Lancaster swinging in a series of circular movements on metalwork high above the courtyard of an old castle...
Lancaster's acrobatics boosted his box-office value, and so did another swashbuckler, 'The Crimson Pirate.'
...I saw this movie, with my little brother Paul, when it first came out in Lebanon, in Beirut, 47 years ago... I was ten, and today I still remember each Technicolor frame, because it was so enchanting and beautiful It was such a particular time for the kids we were...