The Scarlet Blade

This Hammer swashbuckler is one of the few films to be set during the English Civil War. Unfortunately, its treatment of the conflict is fairly simplistic ; the Roundheads are the baddies, intent on killing the king, and the Cavaliers are the romantic good guys, led by Jack Hedley, looking slightly too old to play the Robin Hood like hero.

The film suffers from the fact that the "villains" (Lionel Jeffries, Oliver Reed) are much more charismatic than the "heroes" (Hedley and an insipid June Laverick). The downbeat ending is also a surprise. Nevertheless, like most Hammer films, it is well-mounted and richly-photographed by Jack Asher. Watch out for the sequence in which the outlaws, disguised as bushes (!), creep ever-closer to the Roundhead guards. It looks like a scene from Monty Python!