B- |
**½ |
-1|
Kids & Up*
Danny Kaye in that classic swashbuckling satire
The Court Jester may well have been thinking of the great Douglas Fairbanks when he described his own character with the words: “He never walks when he can leap, he never flees when he can fight. He lives for a sigh, he dies for a kiss, he lusts for a laugh!”
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A |
**** |
+1|
Kids & Up
Rivaled only by the awesome Babylonian
segments of D. W. Griffith’s
Intolerance, Douglas Fairbanks’
lavish, extravagant
The Thief of Bagdad ranks as the very
pinnacle of silent-era spectacle.
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A- |
***½ |
-1|
Teens & Up
Fairbanks’s astonishing acrobatics remain dazzling today, and
the climactic battle includes some great underwater footage of an
aquatic assault on the pirates. This film includes Fairbanks’
most famous and widely copied stunt, riding down a sail on the
edge of a knife; but my favorite is the scene in which he cuts
loose the corner of a billowing sail and then holds on as the
wind carries him up off the deck of the ship and high into the
rigging.
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A |
**** |
+0|
Kids & Up*
Don Q Son of Zorro, named one of the year’s ten best films by
The New York Times, actually outdoes its predecessor, with a stronger and more sophisticated plot, better pacing, more interesting and complex characterizations, grander production values and set design, and more consistent action.
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A |
**** |
+2|
Kids & Up*
You haven’t seen Zorro until you’ve seen Douglas Fairbanks Sr. as Zorro in the 1920 silent swashbuckling classic.
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A- |
***½ |
+1|
Kids & Up*
Silent action king Douglas Fairbanks Sr. is
the most exuberantly athletic of Robin Hoods, for sheer
physicality perhaps outdoing even
Errol Flynn’s definitive
performance.
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