#Swashbuckler film

[blumineck]

I had a fantastic time working with Jack Stockdale-Haley of Jack of All Blades! It’s a huge testament to his skill and patience that we were able to get these clips despite my complete lack of stage combat experience!

For more clips from these sessions, art references, archery tutorials, and more, please consider supporting my Patreon

[atomic-chronoscaph]

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

[illustratus]

Alain Delon and Léon Degrelle on the set of Zorro (1975)

[jessmalia]

FILM/TV CHARACTERS I SEE MYSELF IN PART 8:

Rhaenyra Targaryen (House of the Dragon)

Rory Williams (Doctor Who)

Prince Zuko (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Cher Horowitz (Clueless)

Jo March (Little Women)

Puss In Boots (Dreamworks)

Jason Todd (Titans 2018)

Ted Mosby (How I Met Your Mother)

Elle Woods (Legally Blonde)

[nine-frames]

""Take a cruise," you said. "See the world," you said. Now here we are, stuck on the front of this stupid ship." "Well, it could be worse. We could be stuck in the audience."

Muppet Treasure Island, 1996.

Dir. Brian Henson | Writ. Jerry Juhl, Kirk R. Thatcher & James V. Hart | DOP John Fenner

[of-fear-and-love]

This dress from Sea Devils (1953)

[blacknarcissus]

Ivanhoe (1952)

[chiropteracupola]

or a different palette ask: cowboyce alan and davie in ‘lobotomy’?

I traveled through October, the mountains and the plains / Hoping that the losses won't outweigh the gains...

[racefortheironthrone]

Better on-screen swashbuckler actor from Classical Hollywood:, the Douglas Fairbanks period from1920 to 1929 or the Errol Flynn period from 1935 to 1941?

Fairbanks was the better actor, the better fighter, and the better man.

[katabay]

Hello! You've said more than once that you like old-ish, swashbuckling, arthurian movies. I don't usually watch them but because of your art, which has a very epic feeling to it, I've been wanting to watch these sorts of movies for the past few days. Do you have any suggestions?

shdhgh so unfortunately it's been a minute since I've thought about these movies, which means I can't remember shit even thought I know I watch these movies with enthusiasm, so at some point I will come back and make a more coherent list. for now tho!

so my favorite epics are probably Lawrence of Arabia, Ben Hur ('59), and Cleopatra ('63)

favorite swashbucklers (which I'm broadening the definition to anything with cool sword fights) Zorro films, Court Jester, I've watched a lot of films that Errol Flynn was in, honestly Musketeer adaptions fall in here a bit

close to swashbucklers, I watch a LOT of martial arts movies too, Ip Man (just the first one, the rest are. like. well. they exist), The Grandmaster, Fearless

stuff with knights: Lancelot du Lac for sure, honestly the thing that's really coming to mind is the french musical La Légende du Roi Arthur, I KNOW there are other things to add here, but all I can think about is that musical

[theodoradove]

San Francisco Silent Film Festival 2024 schedule announced!

[dazzelmethat]

I drew something to indulge in my own tastes and test out the procreate watercolor pack.

When you just have to have a duel with this egotistical guy you just met.

[donfadrique]

I've decided to re-watch “The Mark of Zorro” (1940) to cheer myself up. 

I have sort of a plan: 1) watch the black and white version (in the old Soviet dubbing) and write down an emotional brief review in the process of watching it; 2) watch the colorized version; 3) watch the movie in the original dubbing; 4) perhaps write a full review.

I watched this movie a long time ago for the first time (I wanted to watch famous films with Basil Rathbone). But unfortunately, I didn't get to watch the movie properly, and all I remembered were a few scenes. I didn’t like Tyrone Power then, and only this year, after taking a closer look at him, I changed my mind. So this is the first time I'm watching Zorro'40 carefully.

Before we start, a few words need to be said. (However, the film has my full attention from the very first frame, and I'll have a very hard time pausing and writing down these notes!)

First of all, I am not a native English speaker, so I apologize for any mistakes.

Secondly, after watching the movie I want to give my assessment of a) screenplay, b) cast and director’s work, c) posters, costumes, locations, camera work, soundtrack etc. Also, I wanna find the answer to the question, what makes the movie a masterpiece for me.

A separate topic is the homoeroticism of "The Mark of Zorro". We know that Diego's flirtation with Captain Pasquale was part of his plan to eliminate his enemies, but was there a "gay message" in the film, as some movie reviewers claim? Perhaps it was ambiguous humor or an analogue of modern fan service for those viewers who positively evaluate same-sex relationships? Let's try to figure it out.

So, let's start.

1/🗡️

Wow, Diego receives his military education (!) in Madrid (judging by his uniform, he is a hussar), he has a reputation as a duelist (he was nicknamed "Californian cockerel") and, probably, a womanizer. It is not yet known how old Diego is, but the actor (Tyrone Power) is 26, which means the screenwriters were most likely focusing on the canonical novel by Johnston McCulley.

I also really like the design of the credits, the preface and the first lines of the characters, as well as the costumes and the balance between realism and spectacularity of the movie (and this spectacularity is the result of the work of the film crew and fencing skill of actors, and not modern computer graphics etc).

2/🗡️

Aha, "Cadet Vega".

And, saying goodbye to his comrades, Diego thrusts his saber into the ceiling.

"Leave it there. And when you see it think of me in the land of gentle missions, happy peons, sleepy caballeros, and everlasting boredom. Wine! A toast, señores! To California! Where a man can only marry, raise fat children, and watch his vineyards grow."

The most amazing thing is that Diego gives the impression of a very mature and strong-willed person. Like a military general, not a young cadet :) I have three explanations: 1) Tyrone Power himself was like that, 2) he played Cadet Vega like that so viewers would later see the contrast between true Diego and his dandy mask, 3) both factors. But, of course, Power was not just a talented and good-looking actor, he was a charismatic person. A fine choice of an actor to play Zorro. Moreover, Power had a Spanish-like appearance, which is important, for my taste. And his slim body would allow him to convincingly play both a dandy and the "elusive ghost" El Zorro.

3/🗡️

Before I continue watching the movie and taking notes, here are a few interesting facts about actors and my thoughts out loud.

🎭 Everyone knows that Basil Rathbone was one of the best swordsmen in Hollywood. But perhaps not everyone knows that he was twice the British Army Fencing Champion, a skill that served him well in movies and allowed him to even teach actors Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power swordsmanship. (By the way, Rathbone was awarded the Military Cross in 1918.) And! He said about Tyrone Power, "Power was the most agile man with a sword I've ever faced before a camera. Tyrone could have fenced Errol Flynn into a cocked hat." Rathbone's opinion was worth a lot, because he was not only famous for his fencing and acting skills—he was a mega-celebrity (well, years ago I became interested in "The Mark of Zorro" precisely because Rathbone starred there; I had never even heard of Power xD). And yup, as we already know, the movie became a hit, and 20th Century-Fox often cast Power in other swashbucklers in the years that followed.

🎭 The fact that Flynn and Power were lovers can only be of interest to us because Power, due to his bisexuality and communication with homosexuals, was able to play ideally a man who pretended (?) to be interested in the same sex. But since Power's Diego was flirting with Rathbone's Captain Pasquale, I was interested in his views on same-sex relationships. Rathbone probably had a positive attitude towards them, since in 1926 he was very angry about the censorship because he believed that homosexuality needed to be brought into the open (Rathbone was arrested along with every other member of the cast of "The Captive", a play in which his character's wife left him for another woman).

🎭 So far, I like everything about "The Mark of Zorro", except that the screen image is reminiscent of "Captain Blood" (1935), not "Gone with the Wind" (1939), filmed in Technicolor. Perhaps modern viewers often underestimate Zorro'40 precisely because both versions of the movie, black-and-white and colorized, seem "old-fashioned" to them.

An interesting fact. According to Hollywood legend, Rathbone was Margaret Mitchell's first choice to play Rhett Butler in the film version of her novel "Gone with the Wind".

🔥References (if you need them)🔥

Rathbone, Basil (1962). In and Out of Character (Ebook ed.). Lanham, MD: Limelight Publishers.

Higham, Charles (1980). Errol Flynn: The Untold Story. New York City: Doubleday.

[scrivnomancer]

Goodnight out there, whatever you are.

[elletudie]

I'm in my swashbuckling, sword-fight choreographed by Bob Anderson era

[nine-frames]

The Pirate, 1948.

Dir. Vincente Minnelli | Writ. Albert Hackett & Frances Goodrich | DOP Harry Stradling