Le mercenaire

The English version was directed by Etienne Périer whose best work is a pacifist movie "le pont vers le soleil "(1960) .He made two costume dramas ,both taking place in Italy : "Rouge Venise" (1989) is the most ambitious, "la congiura dei dieci" aka "the swordsman of Siena " ,is a routine swashbuckler , a little tongue-in -chick,whose asset is the presence of Stewart Granger , who wields the sword (including a duel with ....Sylva Koscina )with gusto and ,as always ,displays plenty of go and humor ...In the prologue, he fools the duchess's escort with mischievousness; then he takes his bodyguard job seriously when he checks the room where Koscina sleeps ; humor becomes tinged with a certain sadism when the swordsman is tortured :" good things should not be hurried!".

As for the story ,there are actually ten secret people fighting the wicked duke's (and his brother's )tyranny ,and two beauties for the price of one :Koscina's sister is portrayed by gorgeous Christine Kaufmann. Entertaining ,with good use of wide screen .

This fairly standard Italian swashbuckler is considerably enlivened by two factors: the presence of Stewart Granger, one of movie's great swordsmen who actually was a good swordsman -- only Basil Rathbone was better. The swordplay in this movie is very real -- although the casual moviegoer might not understand the seemingly motionless pointwork, it is very well shot.

The other high point of the movie is the horse race, the famous Pallio of Siena. Although the real Pallio is a bareback race, this version of it is shot very excitingly with some nice point of view shots and excellent stuntwork.

Although I viewed an excellent print, it was dubbed, and therefore a bit hard to judge most of the performances. The costumes are excellent and the result is a surprisingly good Italian potboiler.

It's about an 16th-century english swordsman who has to protect a noblewoman. She is not particularly interested in having a protector. The noblewoman lives in an italian village where the people live under the reign of a dictator. There is also a secret group called 'The Ten', which is trying to free the village. When the swordsman sees what is going on he switches allegiance...

A 16th-century Spanish overlord hires Thomas Stanswood (Stewart Granger) to protect his, less than eager, fiancee (Sylva Koscina) from rebels. Thomas finds himself drawn to both the fiancee and the rebels side.

Compared to Granger's other fine swashbucklers - Scaramouche and Prisoner of Zenda - Swordsman of Siena, a French-Italian production, is lesser known, which is a shame because it's fast-plotted, full of intrigue, colour, zest and great swordplay, not to forget the thrilling horserace at the end. The location is exquisite, the town and castles come alive, towering over participants- there's atmosphere, and suspense with a nice twist at the end.

Stewart Granger, in his last swashbuckler, executes his role as a British mercenary with much panache, suaveness and wit - his swordplay is very impressive. The scene in the town square where he takes on the bad guys is exciting, as is the scene where he fences in the barn, swinging on ropes, balancing on ladders. That's a well-staged sequence. The only drawback is that there should've been a duel between the main villain and Granger. The beautiful Sylvia Koscina and Christine Kauffman co-star and enact their roles well.

An excellent old- fashioned swashbuckling adventure imbued with positiveness - a tale of good over tyranny.

This costume adventure never quite gets off the ground, perhaps because its plot is so predictable. However, Stewart Granger gives the proceedings a touch of class and he seems to relish delivering lines of dialog which have some bite and wit to them. Particularly good are his scenes with leading lady, Sylva Koscina. The "action" scenes include sword fights, a racking, a whipping, and a horse race, but they're never more than routine. Sets and costumes aren't quite of "A" level but are better than one usually finds in "B" productions. One scene almost recreates a Vermeer painting.