ma-cortes Enjoyable drama based on the romance novel titled ¨The Lady and the Highwayman¨ with luxurious scenarios and spectacular production design ; where a passionate young lady in 17th-century England falling for an outlaw . Nothing too inspired here but seems to be amusing . It's an entertaining film and regency romance fans will appreciate the attention to period detail . TV adaption of the Barbara Catland historical romance finds the young lady Panthea Vyne (Lysette Anthony) falls in love with the handsome rogue nicknamed Silver Sword (Hugh Grant) , a highwayman who saves her from her cruel , wealthy husband (Ian Bannen). He kills him in a fair fencing duel . Lucius Vyne or Silver Sword is wanted for treason and the following reward : one thousand Guineas . Later, when Charles the 2nd (Michael York) is reinstated as King of England , gorgeous Panthea attends the royal court along with her uncle (Claire Bloom). But here she becomes the enemy of the king's former mistress (Emma Samms) and unfortunately is framed of killing his former husband . The rebel Lord Lucius Vyne engaged to marry her and he's sworn to protect . Trouble is, she can't marry to him, until to be solved the murder they say she committed . Lucius attempts to help him clear this accusation , but she is judged , accused and condemned for penalty death : beheading . Meanwhile , a brutal officer (Oliver Reed) hiding a number of secrets is plotting a long-awaited vengeance in a twisted finale . Naturally, such as all Barbara Catland novels there's a happy end.This is a TV adaptation of the Barbara Catland romance novel, it displays murder , passion ,swashbuckling , twists , final surprise and consideration to period detail . Nothing too original , although regency romance buffs will value the attention to historical background . This is a costume drama that never quite goes anywhere , though results to be entertaining and fun . Wel set in a turbulent period when being executed (1649) king Charles I by beheading , took over a Republican government led Cromwell (1648-1660) , being succeeded by a royal reinstating crowned by Charles II well played by Michael York . Excellent main and secondary casting, as Oliver Reed , John Mills , Michael York as King Charles II, Claire Bloom as Lady Emma , Gareth Hunt , Ian Bannen , Christopher Cazenove , and the final film role of Gordon Jackson , Robert Morley and a very old Bernard Miles as a grumpy judge , among others . The motion picture was professionally directed by John Hough , though with no originality . In fact , belongs to quatrain movies directed by Hough , such as 'Hazars of hearts (Helena Bonhan Carter, Marcus Gilbert)', 'A ghost in Monte Carlo (Lysette Anthony, Sarah Miles)' and the best, 'Duel of hearts (Alison Doody , Benedict Taylor , Geraldine Chaplin)'. All of them realized by the same producers (Sir Lew Grade, Albert Farnell), musician (Laurie Johnson : The avengers) , author (Barbara Catland) and similar actors . John Hough has an eclectic and overlong filmmaker career , beginning in television series (The avengers , The protectors), making Hammer movies (Twins of evil), classic terror (Legend of hell house) , average horror movies (Howling IV, American Gothic) , family fare (Return and escape to witch mountain). The flick will appeal to romantic drama enthusiasts.

johannes2000-1 Let me first say, that I had a fine afternoon watching this movie: it's entertaining, fast-paced, romantic and visually beautiful, with some great settings and costumes. I agree with some of the critics that the DVD technically was rather poor: grainy and with some of the coloring a bit weird, but this wasn't that bad that it spoiled the fun.Then there was the rare joy of seeing so many great actors together: Hugh Grant, Michael York, Claire Bloom and Oliver Reed, to name a few of the most famous ones. But here I have to come up with my first reservations. While Oliver Reed delivers a fine (but rather small) performance as the odious Sir Philip Gage and Claire Bloom gives a spicy rendering of Lady Darlington, the part of Michael York as Charles II (convincing as it is) is extremely small. And Hugh Grant (at age 29 still many movies and some 5 years away from breaking through with "Four Weddings"), hadn't matured yet to such a great actor back then. Besides that, he also fell victim to a curious whim of the writer, who gave him, the undeniable hero of this tale, hardly three whole sentences to say. While the director made him act as a silly 17th century English version of Zorro (including a preposterous black mask that couldn't fool a blind bat) and let him have a hairdo that may have been meant to look like a romantic highway-mannish ruffle, but turns out as something the cat dragged in.The story is a romantic fiction within a historical context (the court of Charles II right after the Restoration) and is based on one of the zillion novels by Barbara Cartland. That's not necessarily bad, the popularity of her work at least proves that her novels are compelling enough to please countless readers and I guess one could turn this particular story into a reasonably adequate screenplay. The result however is a bit uneven, as if more than one person worked on it. Many of the dialogues are awkward and stiff (and unfortunately these involve all of Hugh Grant's). At other points however they're actually very crisp and intelligent (for example the dialogues between the king's arrogant and machiavellistic mistress Barbara Castlemain and her slimy partner-in-crime Rudolph Vyne, as well as the snide comments of auntie Darlington or the flirtatious innuendo's of the king). It's the same with the action: at times plain silly and hardly living-up to the standards of an average episode of old TV-series like Robin Hood or Ivanhoe (like the clumsy "raids" of highwayman Hugh Grant and his comrades), at other times however very thrilling and involving (like all the scenes with Lady Castlemain, Lord Rudolph or Sir Gage). While the supposed love-scenes between Hugh Grant and Lysette Anthony are rather up-tight and square (what on earth they are supposed to see in each other is beyond me, it's like little Miss Goody Two-shoes meets Simon the Stiff), every scene with Emma Samms is steaming with passion and barely restrained rage. And the grand finale, where our hero (Grant) escapes his confinement in the dead-cell to jump on the scaffold and save his beloved from the executioner, must be the most breathtakingly last-minute rescue in the history of historical movies, the axe literally fails her head and neck by an ear's length.Alas for Hugh Grant-fans: he is definitely not the star of this movie (and he actually looks as if he couldn't have cared less!). Neither is Lysette Anthony (way too virtuous and boring!). To me the biggest surprise is Emma Samms, she looks beautiful (hurray for 17th century corsets, and miss Samms DOES fit in her's stunningly!!) and her acting is top-notch! And Christopher Cazenove is equally great with his pretentious slimy fake-charms and his ruthless conniving.All in all: no Oscar-winning material here, but with all it's flaws still very entertaining. I rank it 7 out of 10 (and a 10+ for Emma Samms!)

teelbee Don't! Oh, I know it's cheap - looks like a real bargain, eh? NOT! Put the wallet down and don't throw away your money. It's not even worth the $1.25 it routinely lists for on EBAY and HALF.com.In a decent print, this might be a fun bit of fluff. But, the DVD print is far from decent. It looks for all the world like an old re-copied and re-copied video tape. The poor video quality completely spoils the viewing experience - it's flat, muddy, blurry, and dark. I've never seen anything even remotely this bad in any retail video product, much less a DVD. It wasn't the greatest material to begin with - the script, dialogue, and acting are a bit dodgy and *quite* stagy. Some worthwhile stars are not allowed to shine (Oliver Reed, Hugh Grant, Michael York, John Mills). However, the costumes and sets are really quite nice - pity we can't appreciate them in this release.

icefox This movie was one huge disappointment from beginning to end.Firstly, I bought the DVD. Big mistake. The transfer was by far the worst I've ever seen and I've watched hundreds of DVDs. It actually looked worse than what I can get when taping something off of regular network television using the EP setting on my VCR. Not only was the whole thing blurry beyond belief, several scenes shake like crazy and through the middle of many of the scenes there were video tracking lines like you'd see on a over used low grade VHS tape. Which is what this transfer was probably taken from. The low list price might have prepared me for the lack of quality of the menu, but for it to be of a better image quality than the movie itself was a bit of a surprise.Secondly, the movie itself was awful. I love a good period piece movie and I really wanted to like this one despite my misgivings as to where it got it's plot line (although I like an occasional historical romance book, I'm not a fan of Cartland). But there was just nothing to like here. The story was ridiculous, the dialog was atrocious and the acting was just plain bad. Something that I'm at a loss to explain with all the known talent that was in this movie. I'm sure I can't imagine what the director must have been doing to get such a lousy end product.At first I wanted to give this movie/DVD zero stars, but since I could only go as low as one star I did manage to find one good thing to justify that star. The costumes were wonderful.Fair warning: If you're thinking about seeing this movie solely because you're a fan of Hugh Grant, you can forget it. He barely strings 10 words together in two scenes and two words together in 10 other scenes. He's just not the major character in this movie that he's made out to be by the cover of the DVD.