Nothing serious here; this is strictly a harmless and amusing British period costume "romp" through castles and countryside of 1920s France. A very considerable amount of time is spent watching 3 classic Rolls-Royces zipping around on mountain roads. The story is extremely simple, the characters black-and-white; a handsome unattached young man and his manservant (in Rolls Royce #1), a white-gowned damsel in distress in a castle, and a totally evil villainess and her henchpersons (in Rolls Royce #2) up to no good creating an ever-rising body-count. The Foreign Office comes to the rescue (in Rolls Royce #3) and the outcome is never in doubt. The acting, such as it is, is pretty stiff and perfunctory, and the whole thing feels rather cartoon-like. The villainess (and a female accomplice) sport huge globs of black eye makeup which look quite literally like they were troweled on with black shoe polish. Her castle is actually kind of interesting, and the filming (its all done in color 16mm and the picture is decent if grainy) appears to be done on location, and I kept wondering where it was. The tall picturesque castle has a dry moat, a bridge, and a portcullis which comes into play several times, either keeping people in or out, and in one case it graphically kills a bad guy.
This will probably be of interest only to fans of the lead actors, particularly the formidable Eileen Atkins of course. And to fans of 1970's BBC TV mysteries, whose numbers are presumably dwindling.
This will probably be of interest only to fans of the lead actors, particularly the formidable Eileen Atkins of course. And to fans of 1970's BBC TV mysteries, whose numbers are presumably dwindling.