The Flame and the Arrow ***** (1950, Burt Lancaster, Virginia Mayo, Robert Douglas, Robin Hughes, Norman Lloyd, Nick Cravat) – Classic Movie Review 3472

Italy’s tempestuous history is profitably explored in director Jacques Tourneur’s thrilling 1950 adventure The Flame and the Arrow. It stars an amazingly athletic Burt Lancaster, who leaps from one derring-do moment to another in Warner Bros’ glossy, zesty, Italian variant on the Mark of Zorro or Robin Hood legends. A fascinating history lesson is packed out with light-hearted swashbuckling and a little light romance. It is filmed in glorious Technicolor by cinematographer Ernest Haller.

Lancaster plays Dardo Bartoli, a Middle Ages Italian peasant who embarks on an adventure to destroy an evil ruler. Virginia Mayo plays the beautiful damsel in distress, the lovely hostage Anne de Hesse. Robin Hughes as Skinner, Norman Lloyd as the troubadour Apollo and Lancaster’s old circus acrobat partner Nick Cravat (as Piccolo) are in his gang of loyal followers, up against a villainous land-swindler, the Marchese Alessandro de Granazia (Robert Douglas). They use a Roman ruin in medieval Lombardy as their headquarters to battle their Hessian conquerors.

Lombardy in the 12th century is under the iron rule of ‘The Hawk’, German overlord Count Ulrich, who stole the wife of young archer Dardo. When Dardo’s son is also taken from him, he has no recourse but to join the rebels in the mountains.

Tourneur directs both the actors and the action at a breakneck pace with an infectious enthusiasm, and the result was a well-deserved big hit and a high adventure classic for all time.

Aline MacMahon as Nonna (granny) Bartoli, Frank Allenby as Count ‘The Hawk’ Ulrich, Lynn Baggett, Gordon Gebert as Dardo’s son Rudi, Victor Kilian and Francis Pierlot are also in the cast. Philip Van Zandt has a cameo as Ulrich’s henchman. But it is Lancaster’s show – and he’s at his swashbuckling best here, along with its equally thrilling follow-up, The Crimson Pirate (1952).

Waldo Salt’s screenplay is based on his story The Hawk and the Arrow.

The Flame and the Arrow was filmed at Corriganville, Ray Corrigan Ranch, Simi Valley, California; Bronson Caves, Bronson Canyon, Griffith Park, Los Angeles; and at Warner Brothers Burbank Studios.

Warner Bros claimed that Lancaster did all his own stunts, though stuntman Don Turner stood in for the actor in at least three fight scenes but not the acrobatic scenes.

As in The Crimson Pirate, Cravat plays a mute because of his thick Brooklyn accent.

It is unlikely that this film was ever intended for Errol Flynn, as claimed, since his condition had deteriorated so that he could not play this kind of role any more.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3472

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