Bandido Romântico

Dick Turpin's is one of those legends that should have fitted nicely with Louis Hayward's style of swashbuckling heroics. Plenty of opportunity to rob the wealthy that travel the as yet un-policed roads of 1730s England. Sadly, though, Ralph Murphy chooses to focus more on the romantic elements of his roguish subject and we are left with a rather slow moving melodrama. After one of his hold-ups, he meets and falls in love with "Joyce" (Patricia Medina), settles down to middle-class inn-keeping for a while before he goes back to his old ways with friend Tom King (Tom Tully). That's when he robs "Lord Willoughby" (Alan Mowbray) and relieves him of a document proving the existence of treason afoot - the price on his head rockets and his jealous friend "Cecile" (Suzanne Dalbert) sets about betraying him too. At times it is quite exciting - his break-neck race to York on "Black Bess", for example - but otherwise this just plods along with neither of the leading ladies having much on-screen charisma, nor dialogue to work with. Mowbray features sparingly as his foe and the direction is just, well, lacking... Hayward does try, but he has lost the glint from his eye and can't carry this all by himself as entertainingly he once could. I hadn't heard of this film before today, but after watching I'm afraid I am not really surprised.

The second in my mini-retrospective of forgotten Hollywood star Louis Hayward – as part of my ongoing Easter Epics marathon – is this modest and modestly-budgeted (shot in black-and-white, no less) retelling of the Dick Turpin legend. The film does not have much of a reputation at all – a mere ** rating from Leonard Maltin, no IMDb reviews whatsoever and the copy of it I landed is average at best; surprisingly enough, although the historical character of the notorious British highwayman has been brought to the screen a few times since the early Silent days – including in 1925 (Tom Mix), 1935 (Victor McLaglen!) and 1966 (as a Walt Disney TV miniseries) – this should clearly have been the definitive movie version (being made in the age when such fare were still popular movie-going attractions) but it ends up being merely adequate. For the record, the only other Dick Turpin movie I was previously familiar with was the irreverent spoof CARRY ON DICK (1974) with craggy-faced Sid James donning highwayman garb.

The trouble with this film, I think, is twofold: it elects to be just another adventure (in fact, one of his very last exploits) in the life of the roguish robber when it should have been an exhaustive chronicle of his notorious career – the reason he took to the streets is alluded to here, of course, but not seen and, unforgivably, the villain (a wasted Alan Mowbray) gets his comeuppance not at the hands of Turpin himself but rather those of King George II (Ivan Triesault)! Secondly, the film's title hints at a great (possibly bantering) romance between Hayward and his co-star Patricia Medina which never happens: true, her coach does get held up in the film's opening scene by a masked Turpin and she does get to tame him (briefly) and marry him…but I never sensed much chemistry between them; watching the remaining two Louis Hayward movies I alluded to at the start, in which he is also partnered by Medina, might yet change my mind!

The narrative is a mixture of known facts – Dick Turpin really did parade under the name of Richard Palmer (which is how his future wife first knows him) – fictional feats popularized in contemporary print – his overnight gallop to York aboard his faithful steed Black Bess (a rather pointless episode here since his partner-in-crime is shot on the scene of the crime anyway) – and improbable flights of fancy – meeting "The Great Garrick" face-to-face backstage during a performance of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" and later as a friendly hold-up victim! Thankfully, two of Hollywood's coterie characters actors – albeit hardly associated with the genre in question – are on hand to liven things up considerably: Tom Tully as Dick Turpin's partner from his days at the Orphanage, all through his looting escapades and down to sacrificing his life for him while distracting the advancing posse at Palmer's country house; and John Williams who, after an ill-advised night-time attempt on Turpin's own purse, becomes his personal valet and instructor in etiquette(!) once our protagonist decides to go legit!

That's about all I can say. It was an okay film, entertaining and not badly acted, but in a lowkey kind of way. I can't say I was all that impressed with either the lady or the bandit, but since it was based on the life of an actual highwayman, Dick Turpin, I thought I'd check it out.

Louis Hayward (any relation to Susan?) was okay as Turpin, and Patricia Medina was okay as Joyce, the woman he loves and marries, and wants to lead a better life with, but fate is against them. I think the best performance was by Suzanne Dalbert, as Cecile, Turpin's wannabee partner in crime, and whom he had more chemistry with than his "true love".

I understand this movie was based on a poem about the legendary highwayman. I'm going to check it out and see how it compares.

Dick Turpin in the person of Louis Hayward is grown tired of being a highwayman. He retires to become a gentleman, despite having no idea of how to do so. But money talks, and he gets to marry Patricia Medina. But when mother-in-law Barbara Brown discovers who he really is, she is aghast. But money is money.

Still, Hayward has some ambitions, like vengeance on Alan Mowbray, so he rides 200 miles.

Nominally based on Alfred Noyes' long poem "Dick Turpin's Ride" this falls into the category of those movies that will make sense to people who already know the story, but be a boring mass of shots for those who do not. Hayward is still dashing, and Miss Medina is startling in her beauty. Otherwise it's pseud-historical piffle with a couple of decent sword fights and a self-important score by George Duning.

After one of his hold-ups, Dick Turpin (Louis Hayward) meets and falls in love with "Joyce" (Patricia Medina), settles down to inn-keeping for a while before going back to his old ways. That's when he robs "Lord Willoughby" (Alan Mowbray) and relieves him of a document proving the existence of treason afoot - the price on his head rockets and his jealous friend "Cecile" (Suzanne Dalbert) sets about betraying him too.

Louis Hayward is my favourite swashbuckler, the most aristocratic one with a glint in the eye and an abundance of style and wit and nifty movement with an epee, however he looks tired here and there's not so much a glint in the eye- perhaps because he's playing a highwayman and not a "hero". Still he's performs well enough as the man who is trapped in the life of crime and can't come out of it and the plot keeps thing boiling along. There's some moments of excitement- shootouts, galloping horses and coaches - before lapsing into melodrama and chatter. Patricia Medina gets the heart palpitating.