mike65-2

Okay I'll admit this now I was always likely to enjoy this "romp" as I'm a fan of George MacDonald Fraser's scripts, director Richard Lester and actor Malcolm McDowell, who in terms of physique is completely miscast as the title character Harry Flashman (either Oliver Reed or Alan Bates, both co-stars here would have been much more in keeping) but if you don't know that it doesn't matter!

As with all Lester films much of the fun is in the cartoon-like staging of the action (Flashmans attempted escape from Von Bismark's castle by wooden horse is a particular highlight) and deployment of dialogue in the margins - a comment from a background character here, an insult from someone unseen among the thong there. Anyone watching this in Britain can have the added pleasure of playing spot the future star under a carpets of facial hair and out-sized head wear. The locations are both beautifully regal and dismally damp and dark during a Bavarian winter caught by the ever so slightly diffused lenses of DP Geoffrey Unsworth.

If you enjoyed the Three and Four Musketeers films you'll probably find this slice of derring-do well worth your time. One day we might even get the chance to see a full length restoration edit MacDonald Fraser was disappointed with the handling of the film by 20th Century Fox and swore he'd not become involved with any adaptations again, with his death now 10 year ago it's surely time for someone to consider bring Flashman back to the screen - anyone from the BBC reading this? A short series of 90 min Sherlock type dramas would surely sell far and wide.

What can one say? Other than this is a film that should be seen just so you can say to yourself "I saw that - what was I thinking!?!" So much of Winner's oeuvre is pure hackery with all the directorial style of TV of the same era just with a much bigger budget and more nudity, sex, gore and violence. And that's the case here as a young women snags a suspiciously, cheap apartment in a town house full of strange neighbours.

I'll say no more about the story but will mention the music score by Gil Melle which is a tremendous, full blown bombastic affair worthy of Bernard Hermann or Pino Donaggio. I didn't recognise the name but he also worked on varied genre fare such as The Andromeda Strain, Blood Beach, the Ultimate Warrior and loads of TV work including Killdozer, Questor Tapes, Frankenstein:The True Story, The Six Million Dollar Man pilot and many more all coming after a fine jazz career on the renowned Blue Note label.

The other thing I'll mention is Winners amazing ability to assemble a cast which is clearly far too good for the lowbrow material that he has signed them up for. The Sentinel is typical of this - packed with spot the veteran actor and spot the future star names from the first few minutes to the very moment. Even in the smallest roles you'll go "goodness I never knew he/she was in this". So if nothing else Winner did give plenty of young actors a high profile break - he's not all bad!