The Adventures of Quentin Durward **** (1955, Robert Taylor, Kay Kendall, Robert Morley, Ernest Thesiger, Alec Clunes, Marius Goring, Wilfrid Hyde White, George Cole) – Classic Movie Review 3655

Director Richard Thorpe 1955 British movie is a spirited, pacy, good-looking 15th-century action caper, in which Robert Taylor swashes a spirited buckle as Sir Walter Scott’s noble hero, Scottish knight Quentin Durward.

Sent to France to facilitate a marriage, he falls for the adorable countess Isabelle (Kay Kendall), bride-to-be of his old uncle, Lord Crawford (Ernest Thesiger). French King Louis XI (Robert Morley, in the film’s best performance) fears the ambitions of the Duke of Burgundy (Alec Clunes) and involves Taylor in a kidnap trap for Kendall, who’s been mixed up with Clunes as his ward.

This splendid movie is gorgeously filmed in Britain by cinematographer Christopher Challis in CinemaScope for MGM, with a jolly good cast and an amiable, witty script by Robert Ardrey and George Froeschel that provides a satisfyingly complex plot, plenty of excitement, lots of humour and a rousing climactic duel in a burning bell tower.

Also in the cast are Marius Goring, Wilfrid Hyde White, George Cole, Duncan Lamont, Harcourt Williams, Laya Raki, Eric Pohlmann, Michael Goodliffe, Nicholas Hannen, John Carson, Moultrie Kelsall, Frank Tickle, Bill Shine and Arthur Howard.

It is the final film in a trilogy made at MGM’s British Studios at Elstree and on location by the same director and producer (Pandro S Berman) and starring Taylor, following Ivanhoe (1952) and Knights of the Round Table (1953).

Since Miklos Rozsa was busy, the film’s soundtrack is composed by studio music mainstay Bronislau Kaper.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3655
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