This is a lot of fun to watch - if you like the things that are good in this movie.
It is very much a product of its time: the beginning of television. Since the one thing tv couldn't offer in 1947 was color, this movie has lavish - indeed, sometimes overdone - Technicolor.
It also has two real stars: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., who does everything right here, and Maureen O'Hara, who mostly just stands there and looks breathtakingly beautiful, with her long red hair.
The script is both a strong point and a detriment. At its best, it is very clever, with the sort of humor you find in Warner Brothers' best movies for Eroll Flynn. It is also full of tongue-twisters, which Fairbanks and O'Hara deliver with perfect, but very natural diction at remarkable speed. It's a joy to listen to them deliver their best lines so fast and so clearly. It's certainly not Shakespeare, but it's nonetheless impressive.
On the other hand, some of the script is really hokey, and that is definitely a negative.
The plot is very complicated but, in the end, of no real interest.
So, watch - and listen - to this movie for Fairbanks and O'Hara delivering their best lines, for the technicolor - and interesting sets, and for O'Hara's beauty. When they're not on the screen, you can go to the kitchen for popcorn.
It is very much a product of its time: the beginning of television. Since the one thing tv couldn't offer in 1947 was color, this movie has lavish - indeed, sometimes overdone - Technicolor.
It also has two real stars: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., who does everything right here, and Maureen O'Hara, who mostly just stands there and looks breathtakingly beautiful, with her long red hair.
The script is both a strong point and a detriment. At its best, it is very clever, with the sort of humor you find in Warner Brothers' best movies for Eroll Flynn. It is also full of tongue-twisters, which Fairbanks and O'Hara deliver with perfect, but very natural diction at remarkable speed. It's a joy to listen to them deliver their best lines so fast and so clearly. It's certainly not Shakespeare, but it's nonetheless impressive.
On the other hand, some of the script is really hokey, and that is definitely a negative.
The plot is very complicated but, in the end, of no real interest.
So, watch - and listen - to this movie for Fairbanks and O'Hara delivering their best lines, for the technicolor - and interesting sets, and for O'Hara's beauty. When they're not on the screen, you can go to the kitchen for popcorn.