''The Dark Avenger'' is a 1955 British historical

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

adventure film directed by Henry Levin. The screenplay was written by Daniel B. Ullman (and an uncredited Phil Park). The film stars

Errol Flynn Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was an Australian-American actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles, frequent partnerships with Olivia ...

Joanne Dru Joanne Dru (born Joan Letitia LaCock;Known as Joan Lacock in th1930 United States census/ref> January 31, 1922 – September 10, 1996) was an American film and television actress, known for such films as '' Red River'', ''She Wore a Yellow Ribbo ...

and Peter Finch. The music score is by Cedric Thorpe Davie. It is also known as ''The Warriors'' in the United States, and had a working title of ''The Black Prince'' in the United Kingdom. ''The Dark Avenger'' follows the adventures of

Edward the Black Prince Edward of Woodstock, known to history as the Black Prince (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376), was the eldest son of King Edward III of England, and the heir apparent to the English throne. He died before his father and so his son, Richard II, suc ...

, son of King Edward III and heir to the throne of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, as he tries to liberate the people of

Aquitaine Aquitaine ( , , ; oc, Aquitània ; eu, Akitania; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Aguiéne''), archaic Guyenne or Guienne ( oc, Guiana), is a historical region of southwestern France and a former administrative region of the country. Since 1 Janu ...

from the cruel grasp of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

during the Hundred Years' War. The film was the last historical action film Errol Flynn would ever make.

Plot

Edward, Prince of Wales, son and heir to his father King Edward III of

, leads an English army to the French province of Aquitaine to protect its inhabitants from the ravages of the occupying French nobles and their army. After defeating their army in battle, the French nobles are forced to sign a surrender. They continue in secret, however, to plot to kill Prince Edward, refusing to honor the surrender. They kidnap as hostages the English Lady Joan Holland and her children in defiance of English rule over France. Prince Edward's hand is forced, so he decides to rescue her and the children. In the process, he barely survives an ambush and must adopt a French disguise as he hides among the peasantry. To get closer to his enemies, he adopts a final disguise as the nameless Black Knight. He learns of a coming attack by the French nobility and escapes with Lady Holland and her children to safety. From his Aquitaine castle, he leads his English knights and men-at-arms in a final climactic battle against the superior-in-number French forces that storm the castle, ultimately defeating the French nobles and their army.

Cast

Edward, the Black Prince Edward of Woodstock, known to history as the Black Prince (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376), was the eldest son of King Edward III of England, and the heir apparent to the English throne. He died before his father and so his son, Richard II, suc ...

as Lady Joan Holland * Peter Finch as Comte de Ville *

Yvonne Furneaux Yvonne Furneaux (born Elisabeth Yvonne Scatcherd; 11 May 1928) is a French-British retired actress. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, she worked with notable filmmakers like Peter Brook, Federico Fellini, Roman Polanski, Michelan ...

as Marie *

Patrick Holt Patrick Holt (31 January 1912 – 12 October 1993) was an English film and television actor. Biography Born Patrick G. Parsons in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, Holt spent some of his childhood in India with his uncle, after which he was sen ...

as Sir Ellys *

Michael Hordern Sir Michael Murray Hordern Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (3 October 19112 May 1995)Morley, Sheridan"Hordern, Michael Murray (1911–1995)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, online e ...

as Edward III *

Moultrie Kelsall Moultrie Rowe Kelsall (24 October 1904 – 13 February 1980)Biographical info

as Sir Bruce * Robert Urquhart as Sir Philip *

Noel Willman Noel Willman (4 August 1918 – 24 December 1988) was an Irish actor and theatre director. Born in Derry, Ireland, Willman died aged 70 in New York City, United States. Willman's films included '' The Man Who Knew Too Much'' (1956), '' Across ...

as Du Guesclin * Frances Rowe as Genevieve * Alastair Hunter as Libeau *

Rupert Davies Rupert Davies FRSA (22 May 191622 November 1976) was a British actor. He is best remembered for playing the title role in the BBC's 1960s television adaptation of '' Maigret'', based on Georges Simenon's novels. Life and career Military s ...

as Sir John *

Ewen Solon Peter Ewen Solon (7 September 1917 – 7 July 1985) was a New Zealand-born actor, who worked extensively in both the United Kingdom and Australia. At the outbreak of World War II, Solon became a member of the First Echelon, 2nd NZEF that sa ...

as D'Estell * Vincent Winter as John Holland *

Richard O'Sullivan Richard O'Sullivan (born 7 May 1944) is an English comedy actor, who is known for his role as Robin Tripp in the 1970s sitcoms ''Man About the House'' (1973–1976) and ''Robin's Nest (TV series), Robin's Nest'' (1977–1981) and as the title c ...

as Thomas Holland * Jack Lambert as Dubois * John Welsh as Gurd *

Harold Kasket Harold Kasket (26 July 1926 – 20 January 2002) was an English actor in theatre, films and later television from the 1940s. Kasket usually played Arabs or mainland European types in many films and TV programmes such as ''Maigret'', '' The Sain ...

as Arnaud * Leslie Linder as François Le Clerc * Robert Brown as First French Knight * John Phillips as Second French Knight * Christopher Lee (uncredited) as French Patrol Captain at tavern *

Marne Maitland James Marne Kumar Maitland (18 December 1914 – March 1992) was an Anglo-Indian character actor in films and television programmes. Biography Maitland was born in Calcutta, and educated at Bedales School before going up to Magdalene College, ...

(uncredited) as French Peasant

Production

The film was originally known as ''The Black Prince''. It was the prestige production for Allied Artists in 1953–54, a co-production with Associated British Pictures, to be filmed in England, shot in CinemaScope and Technicolor. It was personally produced by

Walter Mirisch Walter Mortimer Mirisch (born November 8, 1921) is an American film producer. He is president and executive head of production of The Mirisch Corporation, an independent film production company, which he formed in 1957 with his brother Marvin ...

, who was production head of Allied Artists at the time. Mirisch had developed the project with Dan Ullman. The use of CinemaScope saw

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

became involved as partners in production and distribution on the film, as part of an arrangement between it and Allied Artists. (It was a two-picture arrangement, the other film being '' The Adventures of Haji Baba''). Allied Artists took Western distribution rights, Fox took Eastern. This enabled the studios to share costs, and for Allied to take advantage of Fox's superior distribution system in foreign markets when it came to handling CinemaScope films. It also enabled them to afford Errol Flynn in the lead role. Joanne Dru was also imported to play the female lead; Peter Finch was cast as the main villain. Henry Levin was chosen to direct on the basis of several swashbuckling films he had made for 20th Century Fox and Columbia.Walter Mirisch, ''I Thought We Were Making Movies Not History''
Univ of Wisconsin Press, 2008 p 56-58, accessed 4 March 2015 The film was reported to be the biggest undertaking in Allied Artists history. Filming started on 2 August 1954. Shooting mainly took place at

Elstree Studios Elstree Studios is a generic term which can refer to several current and demolished British film studios and television studios based in or around the town of Borehamwood and village of Elstree in Hertfordshire, England. Production studios ha ...

(and used a castle constructed by MGM for '' Ivanhoe'').Tony Thomas, Rudy Behlmer & Clifford McCarty, ''The Films of Errol Flynn'', Citadel Press, 1969 p. 204 Flynn made the feature shortly after his proposed film about William Tell had not come to fruition and was in bad need of funds. Walter Mirisch wrote in his memoirs that Flynn shaved off his moustache in preproduction to make him look younger; Mirish did not agree and arranged for the script to include Flynn growing back his moustache. The producer said that Flynn's drinking frequently held up the production, with the actor occasionally drinking during takes and being unable to remember his lines. "He also did not look well in the picture", wrote Mirisch. "His face was puffy and he was clearly too old for the role, but I hoped careful photography might offset that. It didn't. Before we started to shoot, I asked him to diet and hopefully lose some weight, which he didn't do. There were only traces left of the face, physique and charm that he had brought to ''

The Adventures of Robin Hood ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' is a 1938 American Technicolor swashbuckler film from Warner Bros. Pictures. It was produced by Hal B. Wallis and Henry Blanke, directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley, and stars Errol Flynn, Olivia d ...

'', '' Captain Blood'', ''

The Sea Hawk ''The Sea Hawk'' is a 1915 novel by Rafael Sabatini. The story is set over the years 1588–1593 and concerns a retired Cornish seafaring gentleman, Sir Oliver Tressilian, who is villainously betrayed by a jealous half-brother. After being ...

'' and all those other great adventure films of his youth".

Reception

According to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', the film is " corn...every step of the way. But this Allied Artists presentation ... holds three assets that render it at least palatable. Number one, photographed (by Guy Green) in color at England's Elstree Studios, with a spanking array of period castles and costumes cluttering the lovely countryside, it all looks quite fetching. Number two, it moves. Finally—perhaps as a consequence—the familiar, history-laden plot unwinds with a surprising lack of pretentiousness for this type of film. Peeled of its vintage trappings, however, the picture would play—indeed, does—like the mouldiest kind of Western, the one about the noble cowboy who routs the greedy land barons (French), saving the land for the settlers and papa (His Majesty, King Edward I)". The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' called it "an inferior but colorful swashbuckler". ''Filmink'' said "Errol is too old and portly to play a dashing prince; also, he shaved off his moustache, which makes him look even older" and called the film "pretty bland stuff".

References

External links