The Master of Ballantrae (1953)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

William Keighley

Writers:

Herb Meadow (writer)
Harold Medford (additional dialogue)

Release Date:

5 August 1953 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure

Plot:

Buckle on your swashes for this swashbuckling adventure with a highlander who fought for Bonnie Prince Charlie who...

Plot Keywords:

Pirate | Brother vs Brother | Escape | Period Piece | Swashbuckler

Cast

Errol Flynn	...	Jamie Durie
Roger Livesey	...	Col. Francis Burke
Anthony Steel	...	Henry Durie
Beatrice Campbell	...	Lady Alison
Yvonne Furneaux	...	Jessie Brown
Felix Aylmer	...	Lord Durrisdeer
Mervyn Johns	...	MacKellar
Charles Goldner	...	Mendoza
Ralph Truman	...	Maj. Clarendon
Francis De Wolff	...	Matthew Bull
Jacques Berthier	...	Captain Arnaud
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Charles Carson	...	Col. Banks
Moultrie Kelsall	...	MacCauley
Gillian Lynne	...	Marianne
Jackie Taylor
Stephen Vercoe

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

UK:PG (video) | UK:U (original rating) (cut) | Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #16016) | West Germany:12 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Eilean Donan Castle, Dornie, Highland, Scotland, UK

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Last film of director William Keighley.

Quotes:

Col. Francis Burke: Is it gold you want? Why, I'll bring you gold from the bottom of the sea. And here's the shirt from me back, and here's me hand.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Ken Adam: Designing Bond (2000) (V)

A slower Flynn in his Warners' swansong

By the time he made this, his last swashbuckler for Warner Bros., Errol Flynn's hedonistic lifestyle had finally begun to catch up with him and he looked a good ten years older than his actual age of 44. The toll of all those boozy nights also meant that Flynn was no longer the agile hero of old - although he could still handle a sword with the best of them.

This is quite an entertaining old-fashioned swashbuckler filmed in lush colour by Jack Cardiff. It's based on a Robert Louis Stevenson novel full of twists and turns and, while some of these twists (and turns) seem occasionally improbable, they all add to the entertainment value. Highlight of the film for me was Jacques Berthier as the foppish pirate captain who looks as though he has strayed onto the set from a completely different film - although Roger Livesey as Flynn's Irish soldier-of-fortune sidekick runs him a close second.