Not very good. This take on the Prince and the Pauper clearly wants to capture the swashbuckling lunacy of Richard Lester's THREE MUSKETEERS/FOUR MUSKETEERS but falls flat. This is due in large part to the fact that the director, Richard Fleischer, is resolutely unimaginative. Instead of slapstick, he offers up blandness. It's something that has dogged his long career. The casting of OLIVER's Mark Lester in dual roles doesn't help either. He has no personality as either prince or pauper. Oliver Reed, Raquel Welch, Charlton Heston and Sybil Danning (all of whom appeared in the Lester films) head the large cast, but none manages to register as anything special. Nor does Ernest Borgnine...and any film that wastes Rex Harrison must be viewed as very dubious indeed (note: this film may be dull, but it's light years better than the previous Fleischer/Harrison train wreck: DOCTOR DOLITTLE).
Review of Crossed Swords
