JLRMovieReviews
Errol Flynn stars in what would be one of his last adventures, in this movie called The Dark Avenger AKA The Warriors. The story starts with the facts concerning the Hundred Years' War, which was between England and France for control of the French throne. As the film starts, we see a battle between the British and the French (on whose soil I'm not quite sure) just ending with French prisoners being taken, one of them being Peter Finch, who is not very acquiescent to the rule of the British and doesn't mind rebelling against them and inciting a revolt among the prisoners. In order to kill Prince Edward (Errol Flynn) and overcome their imprisonment, they devise a plan to kidnap a lady, whom they know Edward has taken a fondness for, and her two younger brothers. The rest of the film concerns her rescue. Such is the plot of this pretty understandable film. Some may say, and even I, after seeing the film for the first time, that it is rather simple and not terribly exciting. And, what adds to its awkwardness is the fact that Peter Finch is not too convincing as a Frenchman, considering the fact he was British. But it does have its good points, with Errol Flynn in his well-known genre of film, the lovely Joanne Dru (game-show host Peter Marshall's sister) and a plot you can follow. With good production values, including an unusually moving score, which I liked from the opening scene, this is one of Errol Flynn's turkeys that may not be that bad, if you'll only give it half a chance.
bushrod56
The reviewers here are full of semi-dismissive 'average, seen it before' type criticisms. Well now, I think if you take a good look at this thing you'll find a good amount of bone jarring, armor clanking broadsiding. Even the talk is entertaining- I guess I have a weakness for truculent knights shouting at each other about their 'rights' and 'honor' and so forth. Good stalwart English cast adds to the authenticity. Yeah, I know Joanne Dru is the boring weak link, but this is a guy flick and unless the ladies actually get naked the guys aren't going to care about them that much. And Errol sure did look every one of his 46 years; but Errol's still Errol to me, no matter. The VHS print is very crummy, too. If they could find a clean, widescreen print of this film and put it out on DVD, I'd snap it up in a minute!
BruceUllm
Once you survive the numbing and typical pageantry which marks the beginning of the picture, the intrigue gets rather interesting. The lousy dub on this commercially purchased VHS tape is another obstacle. Alas, no DVD is available (though there are some crumby DVD dubs out there, too!). However, once I adjusted the contrast, brightness and beefed up the color level (a lot), it was a viewable tale the got very slowly more interesting as time went slowly on. This picture marks Finch's rise and Flynn's decline (no more to swash and buckle after this). Compare his "Captain Blood" twenty years previous and you can see what time and booze did to poor Errol.Joanne Dru certainly DID look bored throughout, as was mentioned earlier. Perhaps the whole thing was just a costume romp for her.It's such a shame when a decent copy of the film is apparently unavailable from which to make copies. I find the same problem with the 1940 version of "Our Town."
Penfold-13
Errol Flynn is Edward, the Black Prince, appointed Duke of Aquitaine to protect the English gains in the 100 Years War.The Count of Aquitaine doesn't accept English rule, and so we need to have a lot of scenes of knights in armour battling it out to decide who wins, and who gets the girl. (No prizes for guessing who.)It's colourful enough, and the swashes get vigorously buckled at regular intervals, but you've probably seen it all before.