The Scarlet Blade *** (1963, Oliver Reed, Lionel Jeffries, Jack Hedley, June Thorburn, Duncan Lamont, Michael Ripper, Suzan Farmer) – Classic Movie Review 3279

Writer-director John Gilling’s bright and jolly 1963 Hammer Films period adventure movie The Scarlet Blade stars a dashing young Oliver Reed, who grabs his turn to swash an athletic buckle as the star of producer Anthony Nelson Keys’s handsome production about the little dust-up between the Cavaliers versus the Roundheads in the England of King Charles I (Robert Rietty).

Lionel Jeffries.

Cast against type, Lionel Jeffries does well in a lip-smacking role as tyrannical Colonel Judd, the Cromwellian colonel out to hang all royalist rebels. Reed plays Judd’s right-hand man Captain Sylvester, and Jack Hedley plays Edward Beverley, The Scarlet Blade, who leads a band of locals loyal to the King to try to rescue him when he is captured by Judd’s Roundhead forces. Judd’s daughter Claire (June Thorburn) secretly helps the heroes in defiance of her father.

Gilling’s more than passable yarn is certainly lent added passion and intrigue by its setting in the English Civil War (1642–1651), and there is plenty of robust action, including water thrown in face, rock thrown through a window, men pulled off a horse, arms tied overhead and a prison escape. Jack Asher’s distinguished widescreen colour cinematography is a delight.

The Scarlet Blade stars a dashing young Oliver Reed.

It also stars Duncan Lamont, Michael Ripper and Suzan Farmer, all of whom reconvened for Hammer’s follow-up The Devil-Ship Pirates (1964), made on the same exterior village sets.

Also in the cast are Harold Goldblatt, Clifford Elkin, John Harvey, Charles Houston, Michael Byrne, John Stewart, Harry Towb, John H Watson, Douglas Blackwell, Leslie Glazer, John Woodnutt, Eric Corrie and Denis Holmes.

After the 1962 The Pirates of Blood River, Hammer Films studios recast the rather handsome young Oliver Reed in The Scarlet Blade (1963) and then as war chieftain Ali Khan in The Brigand of Kandahar (1965). All three films are written and directed by John Gilling.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3279

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