Il cavaliere in nero

Quaint costume drama that has not aged well. Insipid lead actor certainly not helping. A bit of French Revolution, a touch of Highway Robbery and a giant blob of English Royal Court drama.is a messy stew and then they start singing!

This passable British costume romance takes us to the wake of the French revolution, where La Canaille are busily putting an Aristo countess on trial. Robespierre / Goldner sends her son as a highwayman to England, to hold up the always excellent Sullivan and the man's daughter Ziegler, who is destined for the Prince of Wales' clutches, while they finalize Brighton Pier.

The middle aged working class leads just about get away with the dialogue ("What brutes are all of you men") and unsynchronised numbers about magical moonlight. The character actors and good costumes are a help to this old fashioned sub operetta.

Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth had appeared in other films before this one but usually as guest artists. This was the first film where they had starring roles. I have read the other rather scathing reviews here. I'm afraid Anne Ziegler must be turning in her grave to hear herself described as "working class" by one reviewer.

Very little was said about the singing and the music in this film I thought it was very well done and although the whole thing might appear to be dated by now - after all, it was made in 1946 - I enjoyed it.

British National who mainly made cheaply made programmers really decided to push the boat out with this film which they made in Technicolour.Probably an attempt to challenge Gainsboroughs lead in costume films.It stars Webster Booth and Ann Ziegler,an English equivalent to the Macdonalld-Eddy partnership.However in America these sort of films seemed to have had their heyday.It is therefore difficult to know why this film was made at this time.It is a light operetta based at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton.Curiously the Prince of Wales is played by a slim Peter Graves rather than the virulent Francis L Sullivan.Sullivan gambles more than he owns and tries to get his daughter to marry Summer who will in consideration pay off his gambling debt.However to nobody's surprise she is in love with Booth.At lots of times the couple burst into song.The Technicolour on the copy I viewed was pretty bad.Michael Been fine appears briefly in a gambling scene.

Lovely Anne and Webster as an improbable pair in a silly plot about the French Revolution. Good long shot filming allowing for full body language acting instead of the later years tight close ups on faces. Music score constantly seems about to break into Gianinna Mia but its very watchable!