The King's Thief (1955)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Robert Z. Leonard

Writers:

Robert Hardy Andrews (story)
Christopher Knopf (writer)

Release Date:

5 August 1955 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure

Tagline:

A romance inspired by a true story of a soldier of fortune!

Plot:

Lady Mary's father is innocently accused of treason and is executed. It is the king's evil chancellor...

Plot Keywords:

Duke | King | Murder | Espionage | 1670s

Cast

Ann Blyth	...	Lady Mary
Edmund Purdom	...	Michael Dermott
David Niven	...	James - Duke of Brampton
George Sanders	...	Charles II
Roger Moore	...	Jack
John Dehner	...	Capt Herrick
Sean McClory	...	Sheldon
Tudor Owen	...	Simon
Melville Cooper	...	Henry Wynch
Alan Mowbray	...	Sir Gilbert Talbot
Rhys Williams	...	Turnkey
Joan Elan	...	Charity Fell
Charles Davis	...	Apothecary
Ashley Cowan	...	Skene
Ian Wolfe	...	Fell

Runtime:

78 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | West Germany:12

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Movie Connections:

Referenced in 1955 Motion Picture Theatre Celebration (1955)

The King Is A Boob

Filmdoms most notorious cad, George Sanders, makes a second film appearance as King Charles II of Great Britain, the first being in Forever Amber. Charles II has come down in history as a pleasure driven hedonist, he's not called the Merry Monarch for nothing.

Hedonist he was, but that was also so much image management as well. He had a good head on his shoulders, he survived the defeat of his father and a decade of exile to return as King in 1660. The man that has come down to us in history is hardly likely to have been taken in the Duke of Brampton as played by David Niven.

But that's what this film asks us to believe. We're given no real reason why Charles has placed such confidence in the fictional Duke, but he has. So Niven's got himself a real nice racket going, he denounces folks as traitors and Charles believes him and executes them. And their property goes to him.

In fact Niven's got himself as little black book with a Restoration Dun&Bradstreet rating on all the richest and loyalest of Charles's subjects. The book unfortunately falls into the hands of highwayman Edmond Purdom. Then Purdom makes an alliance of more than one dimension with the daughter of one of the late nobility, Niven's had done in, Ann Blyth.

Niven looks very uncomfortable in the part of villain one of the few, maybe the only one he ever did. Purdom and Blyth are reunited from the film they did the year before, The Student Prince, which was far better than this. Sanders saunters his way through Charles II again. If he had been this dumb, the Popish Plot which occurred later on in his regime would have knocked him off the throne.

One of the dumber swashbuckler films I've ever seen. Only for the quality of the players which includes Roger Moore as one of Purdom's gang does it get as high a rating as it does.