The ninth collaboration between director Michael Curtiz and star Errol Flynn, The Sea Hawk is a prestige seafaring Swashbuckler that used a fictionalised story of the Spanish Armada to smuggle pro-British wartime propaganda into American cinemas. Filled with all sorts of little absurdist gags while also incorporating the necessary amount of swordplay and romance to qualify for this list, A Jester’s Tale is an oddball gem for anyone in the mood for a very different kind of Swashbuckler. There are obvious budgetary concerns at play here but Zeman makes his smaller focus a virtue, increasing the unsettling surreal edge to his black comedy. Unlike the busy courtier filled medieval epics of old Hollywood, Zeman’s dowdy countryside and forbidding castles stand almost empty, the main players being the only ones to enter their cavernous spaces. The first Zeman film I ever saw was A Jester’s Tale, his tongue-in-cheek take of the medieval Swashbuckler which incorporates a satirical anti-war strand into its narrative. It’s almost impossible to describe Zeman’s work adequately to someone who has never seen one of his films but crucially he matches his disarming visuals with strong, unusual scripts that only increase the magic. He doesn’t trade in the living toons of Mary Poppins and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but rather worlds of exquisite texture and allure achieved through hand-drawn backgrounds and cut-out objects.
Invariably missing from Greatest Director lists, Zeman’s unique, idiosyncratic style combines live action and animation in a striking manner that no-one has matched since. I feel better already.Īlthough it is an injustice being slowly rectified by a string of excellent releases on the Second Run label, I still find it sad how few people have had the chance to properly assess the work of Czech director Karel Zeman. With Covid-19 currently keeping the world on lockdown and facing an uncertain future, there’s never been a better time to plunder this treasure chest of escapist jewels and lose yourself in the excitement of scaling the castle walls, fighting off the guards, saving the princess, swimming the moat and riding off into the sunset.
#DR.WILY LAUGHING GIF LIVE ACTION TV#
So after years of poking around in corners of charity shops, TV schedules and streaming services to uncover more and more of these rousing gems, I’ve finally achieved my goal. As a long-time lover of Swashbucklers, I’ve always wanted to compile a top 50 list of my favourites as a guide to others who may be interested, after finding a depressing dearth of information on this most uplifting of genres. Although usually seen as cinematic trifles, swashbuckling adventures frequently emerged as massively entertaining, joyously colourful films with an infectious energy and a sense of humour often missing from the Action movies that would eventually supplant them. The Swashbuckler has been a cinema staple since Douglas Fairbanks cut a swathe through the 1920s with a flash of steel and a flailing of balletic limbs.
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