The Brigand ** (1952, Anthony Dexter, Anthony Quinn, Gale Robbins, Jody Lawrence) – Classic Movie Review 7864

Director Phil Karlson’s 1952 Columbia Pictures romantic adventure The Brigand is a cheap and fairly cheerful reworking of Alexandre Dumas’s story Brigand: A Romance of the Reign of Don Carlos, with Anthony Dexter in both roles as the Moroccan brigand Carlos Delargo who is the double of the mythical Iberian King Lorenzo of Mandorra.

Set in the Napoleonic era in 1804, with the dual role of a rogue exile who impersonates a king in danger, it is very much in the vein of The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) and The Prisoner of Zenda (1952), adapted from Anthony Hope’s celebrated novel. It is Dexter’s second film for producer Edward Small after his debut in Valentino (1951), though after The Brigand Dexter and Small parted company.

Anthony Dexter and Gale Robbins in The Brigand (1952).

Karlson is a capable director but the handling of The Brigand lacks a great deal of pace and excitement. Also the production is short on the required lavishness and imagination. And, unfortunately, Dexter and Jody Lawrence (as the Princess Theresa) are quite boring as the film’s hero and heroine. So it is at moments like these that you relish the lip-smacking overacting of Anthony Quinn as the rascally king’s cousin Prince Ramón, who kills both his mistress and the king she helps him to uncover, before he sets out to get Carlos Delargo too. The Technicolor shooting by cinematographer W Howard Greene is another pleasure, so the film looks rather splendid.

The other main actors are Gale Robbins as Countess Flora, Carl Benton Reid as Prime Minister Triano, Ron Randell as Captain Ruiz and Carleton Young as Carnot.

The screenplay is by Jesse Lasky Jr, based on the film’s story by George Bruce, adapted from Alexandre Dumas’s story Brigand: A Romance of the Reign of Don Carlos.

Also in the cast are Lester Matthews, Walter Kingsford, Ian MacDonald, Fay Roope, Lester Matthews, Barbara Brown, Donald Randolph, Marie Blanchard and Holmes Herbert.

The Brigand is directed by Phil Karlson, runs 94 minutes, is made by Edward Small Productions, is released by Columbia Pictures, is written by Jesse Lasky Jr, based on the story by George Bruce and Alexandre Dumas’s story Brigand: A Romance of the Reign of Don Carlos, is shot in Technicolor by W Howard Greene, is produced by Edward Small and Harry Cohn, and is scored by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

The Brigand Waltz is written by Al Mack and Morris Stoloff.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7864

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