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Doug Fairbanks, who is not particularly imposing physically and 40 years old in this film, is the most dashing, swashbuckling actor ever to dominate the silver screen. It's hard to imagine Hollywood without him. The sets are vast --- and beautiful --- and yet he still holds your attention.

The stereotypes on view in the film are grating to modern eyes. Particularly the Mongol Lord and the maid (played by Anna Mae Wong), although they at least hired Asian Actors for the part. 30 years later, you'd still find John Wayne playing Genghis Khan.

If only Los Angeles had forced the studios to build sets to building code, I could be living in 1924's vision of medieval Baghdad today.

The film overall is a shade weaker than Top Hat, but the second half redeems it. The first half - the jokes are a bit flat and Edward Everett Horton isn't as well used as he could be. Night and Day is well sung and danced, but the staging doesn't yet show the supreme sophistication that would appear in Cheek to Cheek, nor is the opening Fred-only number in the same league with Top Hat, White Tie and Tails.

On the plus side, The Continental is everything that you could hope for in a 1930s musical. Partly because the delightful Erik Rhodes, who should have been a huge star, gets to sing a chunk of it. Eric Blore even does a bit of dancing. The sets are vast, the dancers innumerable and the costumes beautiful. Especially Ginger Roger's gown. You can't not be in a good mood when you watch this.

The best thing about the original series was the amazing 1920s style, which was done beautifully. This series, which is supposed to take place in the 1960s, fails miserably in conveying a feeling for the era. They play 1960s songs..... any of which you might hear on the radio in 2022. They drive 1960s cars..... any of which you might see on the road in 2022, especially in Australia where roads aren't salted to melt winter ice. Her 1960s house and furniture? They've been back in style for the last 25 years and are common. Ditto for clothing and hair. If no one told you that this was supposed to be set in the 60s, you'd probably never notice.

The other failure is that, where the original series had a strong approach to story-telling, this has been overcooked into thin, formulaic gruel. It reminds me of The Lone Gunmen, whose producers took three great characters from The X-Files and then squeezed them into a canned sit-com format, killing what might have been a great program. The Adventuresses Club and its inhabitants are just tired stereotypes. They might as well be named Sidekick A, Sidekick B, and Sidekick C.

And for readers of the books, why did Peregrine inherit Phryne's estate? Jane and Ruth and Tinker would be in their 40s. Dot and Hugh would be in their 50s.

The one thing that is 100% successful is Joel Jackson as Detective Steed. He has the kind of charisma that Essie Davis and the rest of the cast brought to the original.