i must have seen a different film!!

As Good As It Gets

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

1955 classic movie directed by Richard Thorpe with a good cast and mighty spectacle about Medieval knights and the famed romance in color magnificence . Spectacular and above average adaptation derived from Sir Walter Scott classic novel . This MGM Cinemascope production from the company and producers ( Pandro S Berman ) that gave you Quo Vadis, Ivanhoe among others and only this Production Company could bring it so magnificently to the screen . The classic story of romantic adventure come to life enriched by Technicolor and with such great stars as Robert Taylor , Robert Morley, Duncan Lamont and Kay Kendall . Nice family fare with romance and great action scenes . Film which proved to be notable success in this lively rendition about chivalry and knighthood in century XV , France . Knights battle each other and woo maidens on this chivalrous epic romance . This splendid version , in superb Technicolor , of Sir Walter Scott's classic epic tale starts in 15th century , 1465 , when a man of honour , Knight Quentin Duward , a suitable noble wielding a sword and courage is assigned by his uncle to travel to France to meet Isabelle (Kay Kendall) and for political reasons to marry her . But Charles (Clunes)the Duke of Burgund has other plans and she is utilized as pawn in a deadly game . Meanwhile the young countess renounces the marriage proposition and flees, when is suddenly attached by the De La Marck's devious underlings , being saved by Duward . In order to regain his freedom , he protects her but Durward finds they're being double-crossed by the King Louis XI who has a likable confidant , a barber named Oliver (Wilfrid Hyde White). But Quentin will stop at nothing to assume his mission. Quentin join forces with Hayraddin (George Cole) against William De La Marck (Duncan Lamont)-the Beast of Ardenas- and his hoodlums who attack the stronghold. Sir Walter Scott's story of romance and chivalry in Medieval France is faithfully brought to life in this awesome film in which Robert Taylor stars as Quentin Durward who fights the evil William De La Marck and his hoodlums in an attempt to restore Louis XI to the throne facing Charles the Reckless . This enjoyable film displays romance, chivalry, knighthood , daring adventures and lots of action with spectacular castle attack and overwhelming final that includes a breathtaking confrontation in a bell tower at its climax . The fighting , brawls , duels and other action sequences with a plethora of sword-fights involving maces, axes and lances are magnificently handled . The authentic fight images are among the most spectacular ever shot , as the ending duel between the dastardly William De La Marck excellently played by Duncan Lamont and Quentin is impressive . This one proved notable hit as well as the former adventure movies starred by Robert Taylor . This is an overwhelming tale with adventures, villainy,romance and heroism in the grandeur of Cinemascope although in television set lost splendor. Luscious costumes and gowns specially suited for Kay Kendall . The film packs a glamorous and luminous cinematography by Christopher Challis and evocative musical score by Bronislou Kaper . This is the third on a magnificent trilogy of movies realized by M.G.M. in Great Britain with Robert Taylor , produced by Pandro S Berman and directed by Richard Thorpe , the other were : ¨Ivanhoe and Kights of the Round Table¨. The picture is excellently handled by Thorpe , an expert on adventure movie as proved in ¨All the brothers were valiant , Prisoner of Zenda , The prodigal and many others ¨. The picture will appeal to aficionados with chivalric ideals and historic movies fans.

This is one of my favorite films. It's not a great film, by any means, but to me it is eminently enjoyable. It has a fine cast, a literate script by Robert Ardrey, wonderful cinematography by Christopher Challis, and a lovely, melodic score by Bronislau Kaper. What's not to like? An earlier writer remarked that the film does not take itself too seriously, and to me that's one of its best qualities. The film combines drama, comedy, romance and action in approximately equal parts to good effect. It's even a little bit ahead of its time, in some ways. The theme of the good man who is a relic from an earlier time became a staple in the '60s and '70s, particularly for filmmakers such as Sam Peckinpah. It received an early sounding in "Quentin Durward." Robert Morley steals the show by the way. He delivers a charming whitewash of the paranoid and manipulative Louis XI. It was also my introduction to Kay Kendall. This is not one of her top roles, but new viewers will get a taste of her talents and may seek out films that showed off her multifaceted skills as an actress, comedienne, singer and dancer. She was a short-lived wonder. This is a sumptuous production with top stars and a great story. Why isn't it on DVD?

This is a film to be watched with a wide and affectionate grin. Outstanding are Robert Morley as Louis XI, the infamous and wily 'Spider' of France, and Robert Taylor as the eponymous Durward, a would-be chivalrous hero born out of his time who is none too sure of himself. The necessary, and highly satisfactory, heroics are spiced with a rich leavening of humour and some genuine moral questions - how much should a man sacrifice for his country's sake? His love? His life? His honour? But above all it is a joyous and thrilling romp that doesn't take itself too seriously. Durward wants to be a knight in shining armour, but circumstances tend to conspire against him, and his lady is definitely the stronger-willed of the two; though like the audience, she cannot resist his puppydog charm. And ambiguous, cynical, cowardly Louis is often in danger of stealing the show outright, as he sits at the centre of his web and pulls the strings that manipulate all the other characters - a far-from-two-dimensional villain after my own heart! Definitely a superior swashbuckler, with a saving vein of humour.

This is a fascinating and intelligent film that is not only an exemplary model of how the classic Hollywood cinema works, but traditional storytelling in general. Although Robert Taylor's age obscures the point, the story is that classic narrative arc, the growth of a young man into maturity. The film's fascination lies in the tensions inherent in this development. This kind of arc is usually patterned by doubling and opposition, obstacles for the hero to overcome, a black defeated by his white. Such is the ambiguity of this story that Durward's arc is never fully cathartic or resolved. This is an historical epic, so the oppositions are fairly familiar, the most obvious being the tension between public duty and private desire. The impoverished Durward is hired by his aged uncle to investigate the satisfactoriness of a proposed bride for a political union. Hence a private occasion - the reunion of an uncle (with the Oedipal function of father-figure to be superceded by the son) and nephew - is turned into a public one. Both are intimately connected, depend on one another, and create the grid-like pattern of the story, just as these ideals or duties create a grid around the characters' personal feelings. It is significant that this film whose ideological site is the supercivilised realm of the aristocracy, with its codes, rituals, obligations, language - should force its lovers to proclaim their feelings in a 'natural' environment, a meadow-banking forest into which Isabelle has run to hide from the barbaric implications of civilised society.Durward's development is symbolised in a number of ways, for instance through clothing - we first see him in a new outfit bought for him by an uncle embarrassed at his relative's penury; he manages to gain entrance to the King's boudoir by disguise; his appointment to the latter's service involves an elaborate sequence of dressing up in armour. This increase of importance through clothing is appropriate in a society that expresses itself in ritual, and allows the King to complain of the literal discomfort of the Crown as a piece of head gear, as well as the onerous duties it symbolises. However, Durward's increasing status, despite his noble birth, is based on simultaneous humiliation, as he has to beg for the money he subsists on, like a child awaiting pocket money. One would expect his development to involve a rejection of dependence, taking decisions in his own right, but even at the end, having saved the girl and the monarch's neck, his future happiness and status is dependent on the politic whim of two rulers.The great irony of Durward's development is that his progress is one of obsolesence. Repeatedly, his code of chivalry is mocked as irrelevant in a world of Machiavellian power games - further, Isabelle's companion's reminiscences suggest, anticipating Terry Jones in 'Chaucer's Knight', that chivalry was based on the spectacle of barbarity than spurious nobility. Durward's bravery and honesty is usually contrasted with the opportunism and unsporting thuggery of his rivals; and yet, in his use of disguise and deception, in his economy with the truth; in his spiralling of oaths that leave him trapped in a labyrinth of obligation, Durward's so-called chivalry is undermined throughout, and heavily dependent on the quick-witted duplicity of the likes of Hayraddin.'Durward' is gratifyingly intelligent for a Hollywood history film. This is not to suggest that it is very entertaining. Taylor lacks sparkle when his Scotch-with-an-American-accent isn't preposterous; the wonderfully sparky Kay Kendell is wasted in a muted love-interest role; the less said about George Cole's minstral act the better. The fact that Durward and his enemy look the same is probably an attempt at Freudian doubling, with de la Marck the black opposite of Durward's supposed integrity, but the fact that they both look like Vincent Price in one of his less grave moments makes their struggle impossible to take seriously. This kind of thing is so predictable that plot must give precedence to presentation, be it the sprightly choreography of Curtiz's 'Adventures of Robin Hood', or the near-absract pageant of Mann's 'El Cid'. Thorpe never rises above workmanlike adequacy, with little sense of colour or action - his postcard views of chateaux and the like have no resonance because they have no meaning beyond a bland attempt to please the eye. The fight scenes are muddled - although one scene with Durward whipping a leathered man carrying a red-tipped iron while Isabelle looks on clutching a ladder has an overwhelming omni-sexual charge. Robert Morley, however, is terrific as King Louis XI, a sadistic Machiavellian monster with thoroughly amiable manners.