Love at First Bite is friggin' hilarious. Possibly my favorite Dracula movie.

I share the dislike for Coppola's movie - I paid good money to see it during it's first cinematic run. More than anything else, I hate that it's called Bram Stoker's Dracula when it's anything but. The only good thing I can say about it is that Tom Waits killed it as Renfield...

I also forgot to mention the exploitation films Blacula, and Scream, Blacula, Scream.

Anyone who has even looked at a war comic cover knows who Sgt Rock is. The creation of Robert Kanigher and given fullest life by Joe Kubert (though Russ Heath did quite an excellent body of work on the feature), Rock is the "top kick" of Easy Company, in some unnamed division, where he leads his "Combat Happy Joes" on just about every major battlefront of the European Theater of Operations (ETO). Rock is "everysoldier," tough, battlehardened, but caring. He just wants to see the job done and go home and he doesn't delight in combat. He was a vehicle to tell human stories about war.

Samuel Fuller was a journalist, novelist, screenwriter and director. At 12 he started working as a copy boy; at 17 he was a crime reporter. he wrote pulp novels and broke into screenwriting in 1936. However, his career was interrupted by World War 2. he served in the 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, known as "The Big Red One," for the large red number 1 on their unit insignia. The 1st Infantry Division had earned a reputation in World War 1 and was at the forefront of fighting in the second. Fuller took part in the Operation Torch landings in North Africa, the Sicily landings and campaign, and the Normandy landings and fighting from France, into Belgium and Czechoslovakia. He was present at the liberation of Falkenau Concentration Camp and shot 16 mm film footage. During his service he was awarded the Bronze Star, Silver Star, and Purple Heart, rising to the rank of corporal.

After the war, Fuller wrote and directed several lower budget war films, noted for their realistic portrayal of soldiers in combat, including Steel Helmet and Fix Bayonets!, both set during the Korean War. Fuller's dream project was a film about his experiences in The Big Red One. He finally secured a deal with Warner Brothers, in exchange for directing Merrill's Marauders, about the famous jungle-fighting unit of the Burma Campaign. Fuller argued with Jack L. Warner about studio cuts in the film, and their association came to an end. Peter Bogdanovich later helped get it placed at Paramount; but, when the studio changed heads, the project fell out of favor. It moved over to Lorimar and was eventually produced, shooting in Israel, to keep the costs down and provide locations that could double for North Africa, the Mediterranean and Europe. The film ended up with an epic length, which was heavily cut to reduce the screen time, for release. The film received good reviews, but modest box office. In 2004, 47 minutes were restored to the film and premiered at Cannes, showing Fuller's complete vision.





Lee Marvin (who served in the US marines, in WW2 and was wounded in the Battle of Saipan) stars as The Sergeant, am an whose name is never given, but whose identity is all. he leads these young men into battle, keeping them alive. he served in World War One and the film opens as he kills a German soldier with his bayonet, then presents a buddy with his idea for a unit patch, with a red 1 in the center. His buddy then informs him that the German he killed was trying to tell him the war was over, the armistice had been signed. The Sergeant is haunted by that episode, having killed a man who had survived the fighting and thought he could go home.

Robert Carradine (Revenge of the Nerds) is Zab, who is the stand-in for Fuller. He is a crime reporter and pulp novelist, with dreams of being a famous writer. Mark Hamill is Griff, a cartoonist who dreams of working for Disney, but freezes when he has to kill a man in cold blood.Bobby Di Cicco is Vici, the Italian-American and Kelly Ward is Johnston, who had some medical training.

After the WW1 prelude, which establishes the history of the Sergeant, we transition to the older man, as he looks over his platoon, on a troop ship, in the Med. We see Griff using a propaganda poster to draw cartoons, while the others engage in a card game. They are all young and cocky. Then, it is time to embark the landing craft and the crawl down cargo nets into the smaller boats. Zab, the narrator of the story, tells us of the sounds you hear at this moment: the waves hitting the boat, the engines running, a whispered prayer and 50 guys heaving their guts. They face Vichy French soldiers, who have had propaganda leaflets dropped on them, urging them to hold their fire when the Americans come ashore. A French sergeant says he cannot shoot an American and orders his men to hold their fire as the Americans come ashore. A colonel orders him to fire and he refuses. The colonel shoots him and orders the men to open fire. Another solder shoots the colonel, who has his hand on a machine gun and dies, firing the trigger. The Americans fire back; but, Griff freezes when he has a man in his sight. Zab can't believe he didn't hit him, as he is the best shot. A French captain takes control of the defenders and broadcasts a surrender and is told that it is refused. The American commander tells him that if he is Vichy to fight; but, if he is French to join them and the French rise up and embrace the Americans. Griff is the only one not celebrating and the Sergeant sees it.

The men then enter the real fighting, as they run up against the Germans. We see the terror as they face German tanks rolling right over their heads. With the Germans is Feldwebel Schroeder, an experienced and hardened man, who is an ardent supporter of the Nazis. He shoots a soldier who condemns Horst Wessel as a pimp and denounces the Nazis. Schroeder is a calm professional, though, the counterpart of The Sergeant.

Fighting moves to Sicily, where the squad knocks out a Tiger tank and is fed and celebrated by the women of a village. The boy who helped them locate the tank demanded only a burial for his dead relative. During the fighting, Griff never kills directly, but does lay down covering fire. In one scene, a new replacement soldier is seen reading an Armed Forces Edition of of a pulp novel and Zab recognizes it as his own book. He aks the kid if he likes it and he responds that it is damn good. Zab then tells him he wrote it.

They move on to Normandy, where they land at Omaha Beach. The men are part of the bangalore torpedo (tubes of explosives that would be linked together and placed under barbed wire and other barriers to blow them up and clear a path for the invasion troops) relay. The men are slowly picked off, until Griff is able to get the tubes connected and placed under the barrier and the can breakout.

The fighting moves deeper into France and the Sergeant comes across his old battlefield and the monument to the dead of the 1st Infantry Division. Unknown to him, Schroeder has set up an ambush, with men planted in the German dead, to catch American unaware. However, the Sergeant notices the different piping on their uniform and knows they are not from the same unit as the rest of the dead. Tehy quietly kill the hiding soldiers. They are interrupted by a French resistance fighter, whose wife is about to give birth. Johnston is drafted into being the midwife, as he is the only one with any medical experience. Covering his fingers with condoms, he helps deliver the baby, inside a destroyed tank. Schroeder withdraws and the Americans move on.

The boys later have to link up with a Resistance agent at a mental hospital, being used as a rest area for the Germans. She helps them sneak in and kill the Germans, while the patients sit there and eat their food, as bullets fly around them. Later, they are about to celebrate Christmas, when the Germans counter-attack in the Ardennes. They fight through the Battle of the Bulge and move on, eventually moving into Czechoslovakia, where they attack the guard at an encampment. They discover prisoners and the dead. Griff goes into a building and checks through it, opening and closing the doors of what appear to be ovens. he finds a hiding German soldier and for the first time, takes a life in cold blood.

The Sergeant befriends a small boy and offers him food, then carries him on his shoulders and stays with him until he dies. Later, ina forest, Schroeder comes upon him, holding notices that the Germans have surrendered, but is knifed by the Sergeant. The men find him and tell him the war is over. The Sergeant is horrified that it has happened again, when Griff yells out that Schroeder is alive. They work frantically to keep him alive.

The film is about as authentic a portrayal of soldiers in combat as you will find, with some dramatic license to their experiences (though they were inspired by Fuller's and others). Marvin is the tough veteran who sees the boys through and watches as they become tough, competent soldiers and men, forever changed by the war. Marvin plays it fairly low key, as the Sergeant watches more than speaks. At one point, he is wounded and ends up in a German field hospital, in North Africa, from which he escapes, dressed as an Arab. The squad is amazed when he turns up, alive, looking like TE Lawrence. He takes special delight with children, as he can see in their eyes the cost of the war and the loss of innocence. In Sicily, a little girl places flowers in the netting of his helmet and he proudly puts it on his head and wears it for her, as the move out. At Falkenau, he finds the emaciated, dying boy and picks him up and brings him to an officer's quarters and puts him in a real bed, as he tries to feed him. The boy can't eat or drink much, as a starvation diet has taken too great a toll. The Sergeant silently carries the boy on his soldiers, taking him outside the camp, into the forest, so he can see beauty, beyond the barbed wire of the camp. The boy quietly dies and the Sergeant buries him. Those scenes just tear at your gut and Marvin never says a word. His face captures all of the emotion.

Mark Hamill got second billing, on the strength of Star Wars, though his part is no bigger than Carradine's. At first, he looks the part of the All-American boy, off to war, until he has a French soldier directly in his sights and cannot fire. he stares, horrified, unable to pull the trigger. Hamill plays the moment well. The film doesn't fully maintain that cliche, though, as we see Griff provide cover fire and do his part; but, he cannot bring himself to directly kill a man. the Sergeant understands better than the rest, and says nothing. the squad also accepts that Griff does his job, as he punishes himself more than they ever could. the arc carries over as Griff is shown to be brave, especially in the bangalore relay. Finally, at Falkenau, we see him clearing the crematorium. At each oven, he slowly opens the doors with his M-1 barrel and peers cautiously inside and sees the skeletal remains of bodies that weren't completely burned. He moves on, one by one, until he finds the frightened soldier hiding in an oven, his rifle pointed out but too scared to fire. In that moment, as Griff understands what was done here, he finds that he can take a life and he fires his rifle, killing the German guard. he keeps firing until he empties the clip. The Sergeant finds him standing there, firing round after round into the body. He sees the remains and notices that Griff is trying to fire his empty weapon. he quietly hands hima full ammo clip and walks away, as Griff loads it and continues firing. Griff found a reason that could cause him to deliberately kill and he takes his anger and grief out at that moment, in a scene that is known to some veterans, who went through similar moments of rage and anguish. There are stories of GIs, upon liberating concentration camps, lining up the guards and executing them, or shooting them where they stood. The incidents were generally hushed up and often exaggerated; but, they did occur, as the men dealt with the horror they encountered. Fuller saw that horror at Falkenau and he releases it through Griff.

Siegfried Rausch is Schroeder, the German counterpart to the Sergeant. Rausch was an old veteran of Hollywood productions, appearing in such films as Patton, Le Mans, The Eagle Has Landed, Escape to Athena, and multiple German films and tv series. Schroeder is a professional, but, a believer in the Nazis as the saviors of Germany. It is often lost in propaganda that the Nazis came to power via a populist appeal to German workers and farmers, targeting the middle and lower classes with messages of patriotism and traditional values. They created work programs and food programs to help workers and their families they had strong support in many regions of Germany, especially the rural and industrial areas. Many of those people did not witness the streetfighting with the communists and socialists that took place in berlin and other major cities, nor the attacks on jews, who were more often living in the cities than the countryside. Many Germans became members of the Party for those reasons, remaining ignorant of the worst happenings, either by happenstance or deliberate avoiding facing the truth. Schroeder appears to be one of these Germans, who runs up against a more cynical comrade, who knows the truth of the Nazi leadership and has grown tired of fighting for their glory. The Horst Wessel Song plays and he tells Schroeder that Horst Wessel was a pimp who was killed in a fight over a whore. Schroeder cannot accept this blow to his heroes and kills the man and moves on. He is shown to be cool and calculating, as he sets up the ambush in France, though his men are killed. he, however, like the Sergeant, is a survivor and is able to sneak away, while they deal with the pregnant mother. Later, in the restored cut, we see him in Germany, with an officers wife, in their palatial home, drinking wine as she prepares to flee. He kills her for collaborating with the enemy and moves on. Even as his country crumbles, he continues to fight on. In the end, he learns that his leaders have surrendered and he accepts it and goes to make his surrender, only for a language barrier to nearly end his life. Schroeder is a complex character and Fuller does not portray him as a cliched Nazi; but, as a professional, who cannot see beyond his delusions that the Nazis are the soul of Germany. As the war progresses, events slowly chip away at that dream armor, until the truth is laid out, at the end.

This film so perfectly captures the themes that were often featured in Sgt Rock stories. The Sergeant has the same quiet, confident style seen in Frank Rock. He is the Rock of this platoon, just as Sgt Rock is, for Easy Company.

It has often been suggested, due to the variety of locales for the Sgt Rock stories, that Easy Company was part of the 1st Infantry Division, which would put them into the theaters seen in the film and in the Sgt Rock comics. So, though we have been teased over the years with a potential Sgt Rock movie (with Arnold Schwarzenegger ludicrously attached, at one point), this is probably as close as we will ever come

The film isn't perfect, as the young actors play some scenes better than others, but Marvin holds it all together, both as veteran character and veteran actor.

This is the film that Joe Kubert would have made.

Next, we will move onto a more fun area of film: the swashbuckler. Come on back as we look at the films based on the novels of Raphael Sabbatini, master of the swashbuckling novel. We will witness such film idols as Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power and Stewart Granger, as they duel and fight their way across the screen, portraying the heroes of Captain Blood, the Sea Hawk, the Black Swan and Scaramouche (who does not do the fandango).

Yeah, I saw that in my research that Irving was the model, far more than anything related to Vlad Tepes.  About the only thing that came from Vlad was the Dracul or Dracula name and the Transylvania setting.

Personally, I always had a greater affinity for Count Bloodcount...

One of the prime sources for inspiration (or grand larceny) for comic book heroes is romantic adventure literature. I've already discussed how Baroness Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel would bring about everything from Zorro to Bruce Wayne and H Rider Haggard gave us the explorer/jungle hero in Allan Quatermain, which would inform Indiana Jones, Tarzan, Jungle Jim, Congo Bill and several others. Now, we will talk about a writer whose characters inspired every hero who swings from rooftops, swirls around a cape, and fights the villain across rooftops, ledges, and narrow bridges. That author is Raphael Sabatini.

Sabatini was born to an English mother and Italian father, both opera singers. He lived, for a time, with his grandfather, in England and was schooled in Portugal and Switzerland. By adulthood, he was fluent in six languages and would soon embark on a prolific career as a writer. His first major success was Scaramouche, a tale of revenge, set during the French Revolution. It was an international hit and was soon followed by Captain Blood, The Sea Hawk and The Black Swan. All were big hits, filled with romantic heroes, sword duels, beautiful women, evil pirates and noblemen and pure fun. They soon became fodder for the silent cinema, before getting redone for the talkies. We will take these a bit out of sequence, for a reason that will soon become obvious, and begin with The Captain Blood.

Captain Blood tells the story of Dr Peter Blood, a physician who tends to a wounded member of the Monmouth Rebels, a real group. He is tried and convicted as a collaborator and sold into slavery, something that really happened to some of the rebels. Blood is sold to Col. William Bishop, in Jamaica. his ability as a doctor makes him useful and he soon earns the admiration of the colonel's daughter Arabella. When the Spanish attack the colony, Peter and others escape and take up piracy, where he proves to be one of the most feared in the Caribbean. Col. Bishop spends his time trying to capture and kill Blood. After William & Mary ascend to the English throne, Blood takes up the English flag and saves Jamaica from a French attack and ends up named governor of Jamaica, kicking out Bishop.

The first version of Captain Blood to reach the screen was in 1924, starring J Warren Kerrigan, during the silent era.



The film was thought lost, though a restored print was screened in 2018. It would be remade in 1935, by Warner brothers, with the greatest actor to ever buckle a swash (excepting Douglas Fairbanks), Errol Flynn.



The film is the Hollywood debut of Errol Flynn, who was working in England, in theater and a couple of minor film roles. Flynn was from Tasmania and though he had worked hard to Anglicize his Australian accent, you can hear it slip a bit, in this film (mostly just wonky pronunciations, rather than full blown "g'day!"). The film was originally offered to Robert Donat, who had starred in the successful adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo (a subject for a future segment); but, he had severe asthma and felt the action scenes would be too much. After several screen tests, Flynn was brought to the studio's attention (he had done a film for WB, in Englad) and he got the part. Olivia De Havilland begins their pairings as Arabella, while Basil Rathbone sneers as a French pirate captain and rival to Peter Blood. Lionel Atwill (who would appear in Son of Frankenstein and the republic Captain America serial) is the villain, Col Bishop. It was directed by Michael Curtiz, who was the master of this stuff, directing this, The Adv. of Robin Hood, the Sea Hawk, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex; and then, later, Casablanca and the film noir classic Mildred Pierce.

WB spent over a million dollars on the film and it's on the screen, though most of it is shot on a sound stage. However, there are big, elaborate pirate ship sets, with elaborate action scenes and explosions, so this is some high class stuff.

Flynn and De Havilland have instant chemistry, which is why they were paired so much. Flynn is a little wooden, in spots, but his charisma pulls him through and he excels in the action stuff, as he was a very athletic man. he did, however, collapse during filming, when malaria, that he contracted in New Guinea, flared up. Atwill plays it rather theatrically and twirls a bit of moustache. However, the fun villain is Rathbone, as Levasseur, the French pirate. At first, they have a friendly rivalry, though Blood doesn't trust Levasseur (and vice versa). When Bishop is made governor, to try to stop Blood's pirates, he sends Arabella to England, and her ship is intercepted by Levasseur. Blood forces him to sell her to him and then contrives a reason to duel, to take out his rival. This is one of the best early sword fights of the talkie era...



Rathbone was considered to be the greatest fencer in Hollywood and you can see, in the closeups (where it isn't the fencing doubles), that he is doing most of the sword work. Flynn is more elementary, while Rathbone does more parrying and moving his sword, while Flynn holds his still, receiving the attack. The scene was shot at Laguna Beach, standing in for the Caribbean.

The climax of the film is the exciting ship-to-ship battle between Blood's pirate schooner and the French ship, with a mixture of cannon exchanges and hand-to-hand, when the pirates board.

The film has a great little poetic ending that I won't spoil.

Flynn and Curtiz would follow with the Adventures of Robin hood, before returning to Sabatini (in name only) for The Sea Hawk. The original novel is about an English sailor who joins up with Barbary pirates, in North Africa, preying on ships in the Mediterranean. It would also be filmed in 1924, as a silent film, but, with a great budget that allowed full size ships to battle off Catalina Island. Some of its footage would be used in the 1935 Captain Blood.



Warner bros remade the film, with a drastically altered plot, in 1940. The original novel has an Englishman who s sold into slavery (repeat of Captain Blood) to a Spanish galleon, before he escapes with some Moors and becomes a pirate. The silent film followed the plot fairly closely; but, this film takes advantage of the parallels between the Spanish Armada and the Battle of Britain and makes it the centerpiece of the tale.



The film plot has Captain Geoffrey Thorpe, one of Queen Elizabeth's Sea Dogs, capture a Spanish ship, which is carrying Don Alvarez, the envoy of King Phillip II of Spain, who seeks to woo Elizabeth, to gain control of Spain. Also on the ship is his niece, Dona Maria, who becomes smitten by the dashing English captain. In England, Don Alvarez complains of the English privateers and the Queen chastises Thorpe, while secretly praising him, as she is suspicious of Phillip's intentions. She accepts Dona Maria as a maid of her court, then discusses a plan of Thorpe's to attack the Spanish colonies in the New World and steal their gold. Elizabeth approves but warns Thorpe that the action may anger Phillip and to act secretly. he minister, Lord Wolfingham, is a secret collaborator with Phillip and sends a spy to determine the real destination of Thorpe's ship. They visit the chartmaker who Thorpe has draw up his charts and learn he sails for Panama. They arrange an ambush of the English and Thorpe and his men are taken prisoner and used as slaves on a galleon. Thorpe leads a mutiny and seizes the ship and sails for Spain, where they arrive in time to fight off the Spanish fleet, and where Thorpe battles a duel against Wolfingham.

Flynn and Curtiz are back, but De Havilland is replaced by Brenda Marshall. Her chemistry with Flynn is good, though not quite as good as De Havilland. Flora Robson is excellent as a spot-on Queen Elizabeth, a role she also played in Fire Over England. Flynn is reunited with his sidekick, Alan Hale Sr, who played Little John, in Robin Hood (and was the father of Alan Jr, the Skipper, on Gilligan's Island). Claude Rains is Don Alvarez, a character rather similar to his Prince John, in Robin Hood. Henry Daniell is the scheming Wolfingham, a character which would inspire Count Rugen, Christopher Guest's character in The Princess Bride. Una O'Connor is Dona Maria's servant and guardian Miss Latham, an Englishwoman who looks down on the pirates. Also seen in the film, as one of Thorpe's crew, is Edgar Buchanan, the future Uncle Joe, on the tv series Petticoat Junction.

Curtiz suprasses Captain Blood with more action and suspense, with thrilling ship battles and boarding attacks, with the climactic duel between Thorpe and Wolfingham in the Queen's own palace.



The film ends before the battle with the Armada, as Elizabeth gives a rousing speech about fighting off an invasion of England, which was aimed at the beleaguered Britain.

Both films are greatly enhanced by the rousing, romantic scores of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, the Austrian-born composer of some of Hollywood's classic themes, including A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Adv. of Robin Hood, and King's Row. Korngold captures the rousing adventure thrills and the sweet romantic scenes with equal skill and his heroic themes would greatly influence later composers, like John Williams.

The next Sabatini adaptation did not feature Flynn, but romantic screen idol Tyrone Power. It was the Black Swan (long before natalie Portman)



Power is jamie Waring, a pirate captain who sails along with Henry Morgan. With England and Spain at peace, Morgan gives up piracy and is made the governor of Jamaica, where he demands that all of his old colleagues give up piracy and swear allegiance to the crown. Waring goes along with it; but, Capt. Billy Leech (George Sanders) and Wogan (Anthony Quinn) do not. Morgan tasks Waring with bringing in Leech. waring is smitten by Lady margaret, daughter of Lord Denby, the former governor of Jamaica, though she is engaged to Robert Ingram, who is secretly feeding information to Leech. Waring fails to bring in Leech and Morgan faces impeachment. Ingram and Margaret prepare to sail to England to inform the crown, but are intercepted by Waring, who kidnaps Margaret, because he loves her. He secretly sails to join Leech, as a ruse and convinces the wary Leech that Margaret is his wife. They are forced to spend a night together in his cabi, where he soothes her by sleeping in a hammock. Their falsehood is discovered and Margaret is taken away, while Jamie is tied into his hammock. Morgan dispatches a fleet to capture or kill Waring as a traitor and fires upon his ship, where Jamie is trapped. He is able to get out of the hammock and go over the side, swimming to Leech's ship and kill him in a duel, as Morgan storms the ship. Morgan takes them back to Jamaica and is about to condemn Waring when Margaret claims she followed him of her own free will and the depart to be married.

The cast is fabulous and Power makes a fine pirate. Sanders is in a bit of a character part, which is a bit of a departure from his usual sophisticated urbanites (often villains) and his time as The Saint. Thomas Mitchell (Uncle Billy, in It's A Wonderful Life) is Jamie's first mate, Tom Blue, always faithful to his captain (and playing up his Irish). Anthony Quinn has an early role as Wogan, looking ever menacing. Then, there is Maureen O'Hara, who just lights up the screen. The role doesn't give her much and this isn't quite up to The Quiet Man or even The Parent Trap, and she isn't working with Charles Laughton (Jamaica Inn). Still, she was one of the most beautiful and toughest women in Hollywood, who famously took down the extortionist tabloid magazine Confidential, when they printed a false scandal article about her. their typical MO was to blackmail stars with scandals, then print them anyway, whether they paid or not. O'Hara didn't take s@#$ from anyone and dragged them into court and produced her passport, showing she was out of the country when she was supposed to be fooling around in Grauman's Chinese Theater, and also presented a character witness: her sister, a nun. She won and others started suing Confidential and the magazine soon folded.

Power isn't quite Errol Flynn when it came to this stuff; but, he had more of an edge, which shone in The Mark of Zorro and here. He was also a darn good fencer; better than Flynn and O'Hara even picks up a sword (she would co-star in the later Flynn swashbuckler, Against All Flags, as a female pirate captain; and with Cornell Wilde, in At Swords Point, where she portrays the daughter of the Musketeer Aramis and fences in both films). The attack on Jamies ship is thrilling, as he is trapped in his hammock and must free himself before cannon shot sinks his ship.

If there is a down side to the film, it is in the rather casual depiction of piracy, as we see Jamie and Morgan loot an island town, with women carried off as prisoners, bound and struggling. Power is rather nonchalant, drinking wine while a captive struggles nearby and they relent the boredom with the lifestyle. He further engages in kidnapping when he falls in love with Margaret. They get about as close to rape as you could, under the Hayes Code; and, though Jamie proves to be honorable, he doesn't start out well. Margaret forgives him rather easily, which is a bit creepy.

Our final entry is Scaramouche.



Yeah, yeah; "will you do the fandango?" The novel tells of Andre Moreau, who studies to be a lawyer, whose friend, a revolutionary idealist, is killed by a nobleman. Moreau goes into hiding with a troupe of the Commedia dell'Arte, where he becomes their resident Scaramouche, the schemer. He has a talent for acting and writing and the troupe prospers. They come to Paris, where he takes up fencing and ends up fighting the same nobleman, who is at the heart of political assassinations, via duels, which undermine the republicans.

The novel was first filmed in 1923, with Ramon Novarro. It would be some time until it was remade, when MGM produced this version, in 1952. It had originally been slated for 1939; but the production fell through. In 1951, MGM mounted a new attempt, to star Gene Kelly, Ava Gardner and Elizabeth Taylor. After the success of King Solomon's Mines, the studio made a contract with Stewart Granger, a stipulation of which was that he would star in Scaramouche. Ricardo Montalban was to play the villain, The Marquis de Mayne; but fell out and ended up replaced by Mel Ferrer. Eleanor Parker ended up with the role of Leonore, the actress with whom Andre has an affair, but dumps in favor of the noble Aline, who would be played by Janet Leigh. The film version has marie Antoinette task the marquis e Mayne with uncovering the identity of Marcus brutus, a publisher of anti-monarchy pamphlets. Andre is a bastard, who turns out to be of noble birth. he kidnaps Leonore to stop her marrying another man. Marcus brutus turns out to be Andre's friend and he is killed by the Marquis. Moreau attacks him, but isn't at the same skill level. he flees and hides from de Mayne's men in an acting troupe, under a Scaramouche costume. He soon finds he has a talent for it. The troupe ends up in Paris, where Andre studies with de Mayne's fencing instructor. Andre is befriended by Dr Dubuque, of the National Assembly, where aristocrats have been killing off representatives of the commoners, in duels. Andre turns him down until he learns that de Mayne is one of the killers. he takes the seat of a deceased representative and then orchestrates duels with the aristos, working his way toward de Mayne. However, a fly apepars in the ointment, in the form of Aline, who Andre meets early on, and soon learns is his half-sister. In the end, at a theatrical performance, Andre, as Scaramouche, swings up to a box and chases down de Mayne and challenges. They fight across the theater and onto the edge of the boxes, before Andre has him cold. However, he cannot bring himself to kill him. He then learns that his real father is not Aline's but the old Marquis de Mayne and his enemy is his half-brother. He is free to marry Aline and Leonore ends up with a young Corsican officer.

The film is a big Technicolor epic and the cast is terrific, with a couple of exceptions. Janet Leigh is fine as the darling little Aline, the young love interest; but, the character is rather bland and Leigh doesn't really do much with it (not that I really fault her). The bigger problem is Granger, who is just too cold and arrogant for a romantic lead. You really can't understand why any woman would want to be with this guy, apart from power or money. Granger starred in a lot of adventure films and never really pulls many of them off, though he is much better in the remake of The Prisoner of Zenda (Ronald Coleman was far better in the original). Here, he is pretty much a jerk who just happens to be on the side of angels. Thankfully, Mel Ferrer and Eleanor Parker give life to this, as he is charming evil and she is smoldering as the "dirty" love interest. She also turns up in a skimpy costume, at the climactic performance, that is pretty Rrrrowwrrr....!

Ahem.

Sorry.

The story is good enough to compensate for Granger's frigidity and the rest of the cast makes it work. Where it really sticks the landing is in the climactic duel between Andre and de Mayne. Andre swings up from the stage to a private box as de Mayne leaves with Aline. He follows into the corridor and challenges him, removing the mask to reveal Andre. They fight down the corridor and Granger falls over a stair railing to a couch below. De Mayne leaps down after and the fight then moves into the theater, across seats and onto the railings of the boxes. It is an amazing display of fencing (they were heavily doubled) and acrobatics and one of the longest sword duels in cinema.

Sabatini wrote other works and even sequels to his greatest. There were 4 Captain Blood novels and Errol Flynn's son starred in Son of Captain Blood, in the 60s. Sabatini tried a sequel to Scaramouche, Scaramouche the King-Maker; but, it was not a success.

These films would have a huge influence on young comic artists, who would have their heroes swing across roofs and fight daring battles with villains. Scaramouche added to the idea of a secret identity in the course of justice. george Lucas saw these films on television and thrilled to them and pointed to them when pitching his science fiction film to studios. You can see the homages in the use of a space pirate, the boarding of th Rebel ship, the rescue of Princess leia and the escape across the Death Star chasm, and the villainy of Tarkin and Vader. The influence is more stylistic than direct; but, it is there. The music influenced what Lucas requested of John Williams, who borrowed heavily from Korngold.

I first saw most of these films on WGN's Sunday feature, Family Classics, with Fraser Thomas. Thomas was a presenter at WGN, working on the Bozo Show, as well as hosting the Sunday family movie showcase. When I was a kid, WGN would show things like the Cisco Kid and the Lone Ranger, the Charlie Chan films, then Family Classics on Sunday afternoon. The films were often adventure classics like The Sea Hawk, Robin Hood, Captain Blood and The Black Swan, plus things like The Black Shield of Falworth (Tony Curtis' Brooklyn accent in a medieval romantic adventure), Ivanhoe and Treasure Island. I loved those films and my father would also sit down and watch a great swashbuckler and I would wave sticks around for days, fighting duels as Zorro or pirate heroes.

We'll continue with the genre as me next take a look at the two noted versions of Anthony Hope's The Prisoner of Zenda, comparing Ronald Coleman, David Niven and Douglas Fairbanks Jr to Stewart Granger and James Mason. It isn't close, though each has its strengths. Just don't expect long discussion on the Peter Sellers version!