Colourful pageant
This film has a lot to recommend it. It is has some rather beautiful scenes (the scene of Henry VIII on his deathbed with his jester at the foot of the bed lingers long in the memory and deserves to be in a better film), some good fights and an all-star cast. Oliver Reed in particular puts in his usual charismatic performance. There is some impressive technical wizardry by which Mark Lester is made to appear as his own twin. But I agree with other reviews that Lester is not up to the task of the central role unfortunately. He is too old, for a start. That would not not necessarily be a problem except he is involved in some fight scenes and appears to be too gangly and delicate an adolescence to be able to best his opponents. Nor does he have much presence and one gets the distinct impression that the all star cast was drafted in to distract from his rather dull performance. Still it is worth watching.score 6/10
son_of_cheese_messiah 12 April 2012
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2595830/35447
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