Royal Flash *** (1975, Malcolm McDowell, Oliver Reed, Alan Bates, Florinda Bolkan, Britt Ekland, Lionel Jeffries, Tom Bell, Joss Ackland) – Classic Movie Review 8231

A grand big British cast heads director Richard Lester’s exuberant 1975 comic swashbuckling adventure Royal Flash.

Malcolm McDowell lustily impersonates Captain Harry Flashman, a 19th-century Prussian nobleman involved with sexy Swede, the Duchess Irma (Britt Ekland) and the wicked Count Otto von Bismarck (Oliver Reed), who is plotting to stir up a revolution in a neighbouring state and gets Flashman to pretend that he is a prince.

George Macdonald Fraser adapts his own popular novel into a witty, zesty screenplay, and a couple of hours whizzes by in a flash thanks to director Lester’s nimble director footwork and a well-crafted movie, beautifully lensed in Technicolor by Geoffrey Unsworth. Typically, Lester swings wildly from action to farce, but his satirical attack on Victorian values hits the target.

Alan Bates and Florinda Bolkan also enjoy themselves as Rudi von Sternberg and Lola Montez, while Lionel Jeffries, Tom Bell, Joss Ackland, Leon Greene, Richard Hurndall, Alastair Sim, Michael Hordern, Christopher Cazenove, Bob Hoskins, Roy Kinnear, Henry Cooper and Richard Pearson are all essential in support.

Fraser also worked with Lester on his three Musketeer movies: The Three Musketeers, The Four Musketeers, and The Return of the Musketeers.

Also in the cast are Alan Howland, Arthur Brough, Elizabeth Larner, Margaret Courtenay, Stuart Rayner, Noel Johnson, David Jason, Ben Aris, Rula Lenska, Bob Peck, John Stuart, Frank Grimes, Paul Burton, Tessa Dahl, Claire Russell, Kubi Chaza, David Stern, Meg Davis and Roger Hammond.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8231

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