A visually excellent comedy, could be viewed for the amazing photography alone. (There was no "cheating" back then, no computers to artificially play around with the colours of the film, RF's colours are refreshingly real.) RF gets a little too goofy at times, i.e. too cartoonish, but a surprising number of gags actually work, thanks mostly to McDowell who could have been doing comedies his whole career were he not such an obvious choice for heavies. He steals the show from Bates and Reed, who are solid. The movie is fast-paced fun from the word go, without over-relying too much on dull action scenes.The only drawback is the moronic ending, too dumb even for a comedy, with McDowell actually going back to the trollop played by a rather homely actress (bad bad casting). This is moronic because it's quite obvious that it was she who delivered him to Bismarck in the first place. Until that point, there was little to indicate to the viewer that McDowell was a naïve imbecile, much less the type to fall in love, given that he was presented to us as the typical playboy type, hence him seeking out Lola and then being so easily played by her was totally out of character. (Yeah, yeah, it's just a comedy, fine.) Speaking of which, who could possible fall in love with that? That actress is quite ugly. It's a shame that a movie with such high levels of aesthetics would have such a poor-looking woman in the lead role."Carmina Burana" should never be used in a comedy, no matter where or when it's set.

Director Lester's rollicking comedic follow-up to his two Musketeers movies, this is not quite up there, but still doesn't explain why this is almost an unknown film or worse, an almost lost film. McDowell captures much of the spirit of the notorious, lecherous Capt.Flashman of the books (by G.MacDonald Fraser), a devout coward when pressed, but possessed of so much British insolence and bluff, he gets by quite well. The film lacks much of any other interesting, truly humorous characters, but Oliver Reed is a hoot as the humorless Otto von Bismarck, planning to begin a new Reich in Europe, with Flashman as one of his pawns (this is the mid 19th century, by the way). He and Flashman begin a contentious relationship near the beginning, with Flashman usually taunting him and Otto swearing a retribution. Those are some of the best scenes, including Otto's boxing challenge with real-life boxer Cooper.Alan Bates, on the other hand, never quite warms to the part as the suave adventurer Rudi, a more polished version of Flashman, always dressed in white and quite dashing. He pops up almost a half hour into the film and maybe is too suave; his scenes lack a certain something, such as the droll atmosphere pervading everything else. Overall, it's an impressive cast, including well-known Brits Tom Bell and Lionel Jeffries hamming it up as Otto's henchmen. But, like Bates, they're not given a chance to really shine, usually relegated to an odd mixture of slapstick and serious threats against Flashman's life. A thinner than we're used to seeing Bob Hoskins shows up briefly near the beginning as a copper. Britt Ekland, as a duchess, also seems to make only a token appearance. McDowell however, even gets a chance to play a second role, that of Flashman's double, a more noble prince. The first half of this picture is really promising, delivering period entertainment; it doesn't quite live up to its promise later, but it's still a royal good time. It's a shame this film is best available only as a DVD-R, if one can find it. Update: new DVD arrived in April, 2007!

A lot of the humour in the Flashman novels is based on the discrepancy between how Harry Flashman appears and what he's actually thinking. As a result the filmmakers have had to make some adjustments to how Harry is played to bring our more of his innate cowardliness, lechery, thieving, and being an all round bad egg to the surface. I believe that the filmmakers have got the balance right and fully enjoyed this adaption of the Flashman papers.The screenplay is a fairly faithful adaption of the original novel, which can be expected when the author is also wrote the screenplay. Malcolm McDowell and Oliver Reed give fine performances in the central roles, with the supporting cast ranging from excellent (Henry Cooper) to bland (Britt Ekland).Bags of fun, but not to be taken seriously.

If you haven't read any of the Flashman series, go out and find one. Rollicking good read, with the protagonist being an absolutely selfish, cowardly, mean-spirited ass of a man who nonetheless finds himself considered a dashing hero by the public at large. Fraser does a good job of converting his book to the screen (writing Three Musketeers was probably good practice), re-teaming with Richard Lester. MacDowall is good as ol' Flashy, glossing over the fact that Harry is supposed to a large, strapping Brit, and not a skinny little guy like Malcolm. :)Enjoyable on its own merit, but I'd say read one of the other Flashy books and then see this.