The Flame and the Arrow

THE FLAME AND THE ARROW is one (1) of those films that every ten (10) years we see and are pleasantly surprised how well it holds up. It is also amazing how it appears and disappears. In the 60's it was on quite frequently, the 70's not so. American Movie Classics (AMC) showed it often in the 80's and it came out on VHS. Now it is been buried again so a new generation of viewers are going to have to wait till it comes out on DVD. I have just watched my 80's VHS recently so this is based upon it.

It is what other commentators called it ROBIN HOOD JR. That does not mean it is small or poorly made film. Instead you see the full power of a major studio Warner Brothers (WB) behind it. The props and sets many coming from larger films (Adventures of Robin Hood, Elizabeth and Essex, The Adventures of Don Juan) are quite evident and effectively integrated into the story line. Burt Lancaster's supporting cast consists of the current studio stock company, all professionals. Who knew what to deliver and did so. It had the full Three (3) Strip Technicolor process in all it's glory and finally Max Steiner's score. Romantic and rich and appropriate for such a concept. This is a super 'B' film and there is no disgrace in that. We have seen plenty of 'A' films today that are not half as well done.

It is though Burt Lancaster that is the central focus of the film. His first 'independent' production he knew if he did not carry it well it would have failed. Every time he is on the screen he is the focus of attention and fortunately he is on very often. Whether exchanging insults, engaging in acrobatics or romance he is hitting the target every time. He is ably supported by Virginia Mayo as his leading lady. A underrated actress with a attractive and strong physical presence. Lets be frank, does anyone believe that DARDO would fall for some skinny twit like Audrey Hepburn (or today Angelina Jolie) no way. We did not believe that when Sean Connery did in ROBIN AND MARIAN!

So if you can check this selection out. Your library may have a copy (mine does) on VHS. We are sure it will be out sometime on DVD. Lancaster later made another period film THE CRIMSON PIRATE. Not quite as good but still fun, but it seemed to lack the backing. polish and push that WB gave THE FLAME AND THE ARROW.

ADDENDUM; NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD.

Dardo (Burt Lancaster) The Arrow , a Robin Hood-like outlaw in Medieval Italy under power of Federico I Redbeard leads his gang of mountain freedom fighters versus a mercenary warlord , Count 'The Hawk' Ulrich (Frank Allenby who provides personable villainy) who has seduced his spouse Francesca (as Lynne Baggett) and abducted his child . Dardo , his pal Piccolo (Nick Cravat) and his loyal followers and local rebels use a Roman ruin as their headquarter , and all of them fight against their tyrannical overlord carrying out an astute insurgency . Later on , Dardo kidnaps Hawk's niece and then it happens the usual romantic interludes with lovely hostage Anne (Viginia Mayo) and subsequently to battle the Hessian conquerors .

This is a joyous adventure movie with spectacular acrobatics , action-filled , including thrills , fights , duels , marvelous outdoors , a cast of thousands as well as Lancaster and Cravat performing their own stunts adding interest to the ordinary swashbuckling . Deemed by many to be one of the best adventure movie laced with comedy and enthusiastically paced . Burt Lancaster was a great actor as well as big on athletic prowess and highly enjoyable to watch on-screen . Here Burt spectacularly runs , rides , shoots arrows , bounds and leaps . This top-notch adventure established the handsome Burt as the natural successor to Douglas Fraibanks Sr , Douglas Fairbanks Jr and Errol Flynn in Warner Brothers' swashbucklers . It also strengthened his credentials as a leading man and not just another swashbuckling hero , from then on he started to get much wider range of characters . Lancaster teamed with his ex-circus colleague Nick Cravat , long-time acrobatic partner appeared with Burt in nine films . Cravat according to reports was as strong as a bull , he may have been short on stature but he was a real acrobat . In this film and The Crimson pirate (1952), Nick played characters that were mute and this was because he spoke with a very thick Brooklyn accent that he could not shake , and it would have been wildly out of place in such period costume dramas . Before his Hollywood acting carrier Nick Cravat also worked in the circus with Burt in a Rolla-Bolla duo act known as the Saxons . He partnered with Lancaster in a perch-pole balancing act where Nick , as bottom man , balanced Burt forehead atop a ten foot perch-pole . Support cast is pretty good , such as : Frank Allenby , Aline MacMahon , Lynn Baggett , Norman Lloyd as Apollo The Troubador , Victor Kilian as Apothecary and the British Robert Douglas , once a national fencing champion . And uncredited Richard Farnsworth as an outlaw . ¨The flame and the arrow¨ (1950) was 11th biggest grossing movie in the world for the year , recouping several times its original cost to the surprise of the studio . It displays a colorful cinematography in Technicolor by Ernest Haller . And a thrilling and evocative musical score by the classic composer Max Steiner .

This derring-do film was professionally directed by the underrated filmmaker Jacques Tourneur , though the present-day he is better considered . Jacques directed all kinds of genres , such as : Western : ¨Great day in the morning¨, ¨Stranger on horseback¨, ¨Canyon passage¨, ¨Wichita¨ ; Terror : ¨Curse of demon¨, ¨I Walked with a Zombie¨, ¨Leopard man¨ , ¨Cat people¨, ¨Comedy of terrors¨ ; Film Noir :¨Out the past¨, ¨Berlin express¨, ¨Experiment perilous¨ , ¨Nightfall¨ and Adventure : ¨The giant of Marathon¨ , ¨Tombuctú¨, ¨Martin the gaucho¨ , ¨Anne of the Indians¨ and ¨The flame and the arrow¨.

While this isn't the best adventure film I have ever seen, it might just be the highest energy film and featured stunts you just won't see in films by Errol Flynn or Ronald Coleman. That's because the star, Burt Lancaster, does most of his own stunts--having been a circus performer in a previous career along with his partner, Nick Cravat! It's obvious that he is one of the most athletic leading men in history and apart from his film, TRAPEZE, it's the most incredible stunt-work you'll see him do on film. A couple years after making this film, Lancaster returned for THE CRIMSON PIRATE--a better film, but one that features less of the athleticism of THE FLAME AND THE ARROW. It is interesting that Lancaster's circus partner, Nick Cravat, also plays his best friend in this film and several others (such as THE CRIMSON PIRATE). Some of their stunt-work together is truly amazing.

As far as the plot goes, it's a reworking of the Robin Hood story, but this time it's set in Lombardy (a region in North-central Italy that includes Milan) and the invaders are Hessians (from the region around Frankfurt, Germany). Apart from that, the story elements are very, very similar. Even the part played by Virginia mayo is a copy of Maid Marian from Robin Hood. However, despite being a bit recycled, the film is exciting and fun--if also a bit like "fluff". Good old fashioned, but not especially deep fun, it's a must for Burt Lancaster films--he's dynamite.

Set in a little-remembered historical setting, the 1950 Warner Bros. swashbuckler "The Flame and the Arrow" finds its star, Burt Lancaster, showing off his great acrobatic prowess for the first time on screen. Since his spectacular debut in 1946's "The Killers," Lancaster had been featured in a run of moody, dramatic and noirish thrillers, but here, in his 10th picture (not counting his cameo appearance in 1947's "Variety Girl"), Burt finally seemed to be having some fun on the big screen. Appearing in color for the first time, big Burt here plays a character named Dardo Bartoli. A single father who lives in the Lombardy region in what we must presume to be the mid-12th century (the period when the Lombard League was formed to oust the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and his Hessians, who had captured Milan in 1158 and burned it in 1162), Dardo has more than ample reason to be aggrieved with the Hessian Count Ulrich, aka The Hawk (hissably portrayed by Frank Allenby). Dardo's ex-wife had earlier "taken up" with the count, and his young son Rudi is soon kidnapped and ensconced in the count's well-guarded castle. Thus, accompanied by his friend Piccolo (Lancaster's boyhood pal Nick Cravat), the two attempt a rescue, but must ultimately content themselves with the kidnapping of the count's luscious niece, Anne of Hesse (beautiful-as-always Virginia Mayo), in the hopes of an exchange. But complications, both logistical and romantic, naturally ensue....

"The Flame and the Arrow" is a film that seems to be not as highly regarded as Lancaster and Cravat's follow-up swashbuckler, 1952's "The Crimson Pirate," which, in the interest of complete honesty--and to my own personal embarrassment--I must admit to not having seen. Still, the duo's initial outing has much to offer to the fun-loving fan of Saturday matinée-type entertainments. Lancaster and Cravat--who had formed the Lang and Cravat acrobatic team in the 1930s and performed extensively in circuses and nightclubs--get to show off their physical stunts here in various action situations, and although the two were hardly youngsters at this point (Burt was 37; Nick, 39), they are still remarkably impressive. No need for stuntmen with these two around, that's for sure! The film throws in a number of rousing combat scenes, and concludes with one of the great unsung swordfights in screen history, between Dardo and the traitorous Marchese Granazia (a nicely ambiguous performance from Robert Douglas); just look at how ferociously Burt swings his sword around in this scene! Virginia Mayo, a year after her terrific performance as James Cagney's moll Verna in "White Heat," looks absolutely sensational here in supersaturated Technicolor, and famed character actors Aline MacMahon and Victor Kilian are just fine in smaller roles. But this is most assuredly Burt's picture all the way, and his manifest joy in playing a physical-action character in a period swashbuckler is quite contagious. With that flashing grin and million-dollar set of teeth, no wonder all the girls in Lombardy seem to have a major thang for him! And thus, how little sympathy the viewer has for Dardo's wife, Francesca (Lynn Baggett), who would give up this man, as well as her cute son (appealingly played by young Gordon Gebert), in order to live with the evil but wealthy count!

"The Flame and the Arrow" was directed by the great Jacques Tourneur, the French-born filmmaker who is perhaps best remembered today for his 1940s RKO horror films--"The Cat People," "I Walked With a Zombie" and "The Leopard Man" (all made for producer Val Lewton)--as well as for the cult item "Curse of the Demon"; here, Tourneur demonstrates that he could be just as skilled and effective in another, nonhorror genre. Finally, I would be remiss if I failed to mention the lovely score that has been provided here by the renowned Max Steiner, who had previously contributed to such "minor" films as "King Kong," "Top Hat," "Gone With the Wind," "Sergeant York," "Now, Voyager," "Casablanca," "Mildred Pierce," "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and, again, "White Heat," in addition to a few hundred others (what an amazing career!). A classy affair from start to finish, "The Flame and the Arrow" is very much your standard Hollywood adventure fare, but done to a turn by a cast and crew that obviously took great pride in their craft; truly, a rousing entertainment for audience members of all ages.

Both this film and The Crimson Pirate established Burt Lancaster's reputation in the swashbuckling genre. When discussing Lancaster's career even with Oscar nominations and one Oscar for roles vastly different than who he plays in The Flame And The Arrow, I find it fascinating that so many still refer back to these films and label Lancaster a swashbuckling star like Errol Flynn.

Taking place in medieval Lombardy, the province is part of the Holy Roman Empire and they have a particularly evil Hessian provincial governor in Frank Allenby, known as "the Hawk" for his partiality to falconry and for his rapacious designs. Five years before, Allenby just took for himself the bored wife of Burt Lancaster played by Lynne Baggett leaving him to raise their son Gordon Gebert.

Now however Allenby at Baggett's suggestion comes in and takes Gebert away from a wounded Lancaster. Up to this time Lancaster has lived isolated in the mountains. Now he finally decides to join the rebels in revolt against Allenby and the Empire. Nothing like a little child stealing to provide motivation.

Before taking up acting Lancaster and his partner Nick Cravat were circus performers and his natural abilities in that direction made producers want to cast him in films like The Flame And The Arrow. But Lancaster knew his talent and always tried and succeeded in getting better parts. He never did want to have the career of Errol Flynn.

Burt also gets the opportunity to romance Allenby's niece Virginia Mayo who is being offered to a recently impoverished count Robert Douglas in the hopes of peace and unity. Douglas however is working an agenda all his own in The Flame And The Arrow. Mayo is curiously enough the mirror image of Baggett. She's bored with court life and finds certain attractions among the peasants especially the lusty and charismatic Lancaster.

And Burt has the charisma going full blast in this film. As well he would have to, otherwise why would the peasants be following him. It's an expansive part and no one could be as expansive as Burt Lancaster when the part called for it.

The Flame And The Arrow holds up well today. It should as it has a universal theme of a man protecting his child.