Rogues' Gallery

By J. C.

ROYAL FLASH

Directed by RICHARD LESTER

Screenplay by GEORGE MacDONALD FRASER

Courage is the invention of lunatic romantics, and dishonor is easily tolerable if the only alternative is death. These guiding principles are advanced with brisk savvy in Royal Flash, which has to do with the exploits of Captain Harry Flashman, a rogue, prig, tosspot and coward, and proud of every bit of it.

Flashman (brightly played by Malcolm McDowell) is all set to surrender the British flag during an engagement with the enemy. But at the crucial moment, a piece of masonry falls on his head. Discovered unconscious by a relief regiment, clutching the banner he would so willingly have given over, Flashman is decorated as a hero. The medal gains him entry to the best gaming houses and bordellos in Victorian London. It also acts as a talisman to draw Flashman into a series of amusingly unlikely exploits in which he is repeatedly required to put his tarnished mettle to the test.

Much in the style of his previous Three Musketeers films, Director Richard Lester parodies the excesses of the costume romance even while turning them to his own advantage. Or trying to. Like the Musketeers excursion, Royal Flash could have been a keen double edge. As it stands, this movie hardly cuts at all. The plot is scrambled and awkward, made to measure for jokes that do not really come off. (It was extracted from Scenarist Fraser's satiric novel, which Lester had wanted to film for some time -- perhaps too long a time.) Flashman becomes embroiled in an improbable Ruritanian intrigue involving Lola Montez (Florinda Bolkan), Count Otto von Bismarck (Oliver Reed) and a mysterious double agent called Von Starnberg (Alan Bates). The satire is never quite clever or cunning enough.

Lester looks for most of his humor in Flashman's cravenness and clumsiness, sources that are rather too quickly exhausted. It is as if Lester were working on assignment, not out of inspiration.

The cast is full of charm and talent, eager to put it all to use, but everyone is defeated by a prevailing indifference.

J. C.

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