Hornblower: The Duchess and the Devil

Unfortunately for me, I did not get to see the first two "Hornblower" episodes but I did get to see this one. It was certainly wonderful. Ioan Gruffudd was absolutely phenomenal; not only talented but exceedingly handsome to boot! I can't wait till next week when I can enjoy this wonderful miniseries yet again!

The Hornblower books were an excellent read. Though it has been nearly 30 years since I have read them, they are fondly remembered. This long film which has been separated into four episodes for television is very representative of Horatio Hornblower and what he stood for. The filming is outstanding, the costuming great, the models extremely realistic, in fact the first three episodes are truly outstanding television in themselves. The lead player, the young Welsh actor, Ioan Gruffud (spelling) is good looking, athletic enough for the extracurricular activities and very realistic. There are a number of secondary players in some of the episodes if not all. Robert Lindsay, who reminds me of the American actor famed for the Usual Suspects and L.A. Confidential, Kevin Spacey, is also outstanding. An English actress whose name is something like Cherry Lunghi and the wonderful English actor who play the Russian expatriot, Yaki, in the memorable Masterpiece Theatre series, Fortunes of War, are also very welcome. This is a series well worth seeing.

I thoroughly enjoyed "Duchess", and in fact all of the Horatio Hornblower movies. They were well written, well filmed, and well acted, particularly in the cases of Ioan Gruffud and Jamie Barber (Horatio & Archie Kennedy) who also, I happen to think, are both very attractive. I like the fact that M'Man Kennedy was brought back into the story. Cherie L. was also very good as the "Duchess."

The Horatio Hornblower series of TV movies is not the usual A & E culture vulture stuff. It's actually fun! Based on the novel about a dashing and ambitious young sailor in the Royal Navy in the 18th century, it's not exactly subtle, but it's great action-adventure genre stuff. Handsome Iaon Gruffud (Kate Winslet's rescuer in Titanic) stars as the too-gallant-to-be-true hero, continually getting into sticky situations. The script is witty, the characters real, and the period is shown convincingly. I guess it's kind of corny, but it's so much fun to watch you really won't care. I'm not really a costume drama person, but this one changed my mind. Catch it on A & E.

wow, wow, wow, so deep and ensnaring, can't look away! This particular episode is one of my favorites, amazing, and M'Man Kennedy AKA Jamie Bamber is so good in this one! loved it! If i could vote higher than 1- outa 10, i would, hit the mark for good plot line, characters, climax, summary, music, everything was good and then some! I loved it, in case you hadn't already guessed!! If there was thing i would say about it, though is that there wasn't enough screen time for the 'duchess' but aside from that, it was good, and the music was especially good in this episode, the exiting music and it tied the whole movie, i like the fact that, unlike movies such as Master and Commander, it didn't think it was unnecessary to put in background music, it gives the whole episode a bit of light, well done, very well done.