1st Edition
Swordsmen of the Screen From Douglas Fairbanks to Michael York
This fascinating study of the genre of swashbuckling films received wide critical acclaim when it was first published in 1977. Jeffrey Richards assesses the contributions to the genre of directors, designers and fencing masters, as well as of the stars themselves, and devotes several chapters to the principal subjects if the swashbucklers – pirates, highwaymen, cavaliers and knights. The result is to recall, however fleetingly, the golden days of the silver screen.
Reviews of the original edition:
‘An intelligent, scholarly, well-written account of adventure films, this work is sensitive both to cinema history and to the literary origins of the "swashbuckler"….Essential for any library with books on film, it may very well be the definitive book on its subject.’ – Library Journal
Introduction 1. Swashbuckling: A Profile of the Genre 2. The Swordsmen of the Screen 3. ‘All for One – and One for All’ 4. When Knighthood was in Flower 5. Cavaliers and Conquistadores 6. Blades and Brocades 7. The Masked Avengers 8. Under the Greenwood Tree 9. Ho, for the Open Road 10. ‘Neath the Skull and Bones 11. On the Spanish Main 12. The Sheikhs of Araby. General Index. Index of Film Titles
Biography
Jeffrey Richards
