The Scarlet Blade (1963)

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Buckle your swash in Merry Olde England ™ from British horror movie stable Hammer House.

Renamed The Crimson Blade in the colonies, it stars Lionel Jeffries (Grandpa Bungie Potts in Chitty Bang Bang) as a wicked New Model Army Colonel. A young Oliver Reed is his captain.


Set after the Battle of Preston, an underground Royalist movement plots to rescue Charles I from Hampton Court...

This is a film for a wet Sunday afternoon, with a pot of tea and a good packet of biscuits. Just don't think too hard: not as fanciful as Cromwell (1970), it does stretch historical facts a touch. It's entertainment, not an accurate historical docudrama.

It really does look the part, and gives a good feel for the period, despite showing its fifty plus years.

My highlights are the fight scenes: keep a close eye on the daggers and swords being used by the extras, judging by how some of them wobble they must be made from a very flexible rubber.

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