Le chevalier de Pardaillan

The swashbucklers were THE genre in the late fifties/early sixties France.While the intellectuals were discovering the nouvelle vague,the kids we were had much fun with those harmless stories of dashing knights,damsels in distress and villains aplenty.

"Le chevalier de Pardaillan" was adapted from Michel Zevaco's series of books which take place during the wars of religion in the second half of the sixteenth century.As Jean Marais was probably not available,Bernard Borderie hired Gerard Barray as the hero and his choice was good cause he had everything that made a courageous Gascon.Italian beauty Gianna Maria Canale was the traitor while very earnest thespian Jean Topart was cast as the duke de Guise .

Borderie was to make a sequel "Hardi Pardaillan" ,and then ditched his hero for a more lucrative heroine Angelique whose adventures spread over five movies.

These two movies Le chevalier de Pardaillan 1962 and Hardi Pardaillan! 1964 are both made by Bernard Borderie who also directed "Les trois mousquetaires: Première époque - Les ferrets de la reine" and "Les trois mousquetaires: Tome II - La vengeance de Milady" both from 1961.

Both d'Artagnan and Pardaillan are played by Gérard Barray who seems to be playing the exact same character in all four movies. Both are a bold knight from Gascony with the same attitude. He even has similar lines. Like when a women says the bad guys were 20 and he says only 10 and I'm from Gascony.

Even the villain is played by Guy Delorme who also played Rochefort in Borderie's movies. So if you liked this you may want to watch the mouseketeers movies and vice versa.

Other than that its a pretty decent movie for its type. It could have been more serious but like most french swashbuckler's movies of the 50-60 its a funny entertaining adventure movie with a bit of romance.

Kirk Morris (Adriano Bellini), plays Samson the strongman who helps his Gypsy friends overcome the evil doers and saves the day with his feats of strength. Kirk Morris soon went on to star in his own series of "Hercules/Maciste" style movies. The most notable was HERCULES, SAMSON and ULYSSES in 1965, which played in theaters all over the world. After the genre ended, he made Westerns, and War movies. Larry Anderson.

Violetta (Michèle Grellier) is abducted by the evil Duke de Guise (Jean Topart). De Guise promised Princess Fausta (Gianna Maria Canale) to make her queen when he becomes king, so she is rather irritated by his interest in the beautiful Violetta. The knight Jean de Pardaillan (Gérard Barray) is in love with Violetta and comes to her rescue, fighting de Guise and a whole army of extras.

Fast moving swashbuckling adventure which is not boring for a second. It has its fair share of comedy ingredients, when the hero never takes his enemies too serious, but jumps at them with a broad grin, shouting "Ha, ha!" a lot, sabre always in hand. It is a bit weird to see Kirk Morris as Samson, though. He looks like he got into the wrong movie set by mistake.