Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45052 in DVD
• Brand: Royal
• Released on: 2007-04-03
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 102 minutes

Amazon.com
Based on the popular series of Flashman novels by George MacDonald Fraser, Royal Flash tells the epic tale of the cowardly Captain Harry Flashman (famous for bullying Tom Brown in Tom Brown’s Schooldays) a would-be playboy and socialite, except he doesn’t have the money or the breeding. Seeing a short cut to the society crowd, Flashman agrees to Otto Von Bismarck’s scheme to impersonate a Prussian prince and marry a duchess. But when the scheme goes awry, Flashman finds himself escaping via the European wars, in which his cowardliness gets mistaken for military bravery.

Amazon.com
The term "romp" could have been invented to describe Royal Flash, a boisterous 1975 comedy-adventure starring Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange, Caligula) as Captain Harry Flashman: Braggart, bully, coward, thief, womanizer, and all-around scoundrel. Having risen to heroic prominence through sheer luck, Flashman gets sucked into a scheme by German statesman Otto von Bismarck (played with a superlative scowl by Oliver Reed, Gladiator) and courtesan Lola Montez (Florinda Bolkan, The Damned) to marry Flashman to a beautiful duchess (Britt Ekland, The Man with the Golden Gun) to control her province. But the political machinations are just an excuse for a rambunctious mix of satire and derring-do, much like director Richard Lester (A Hard Day's Night) and screenwriter George MacDonald Fraser (who also wrote the Flashman novels, on which this film was based) had perfected with the enormously successful The Three Musketeers. Royal Flash suffers in comparison; the pace in the middle sags from too much pomp and not enough circumstance. But the movie builds to a vigorous conclusion, including some excellent swordplay between McDowell and Alan Bates (Gosford Park) as an unscrupulous Hungarian. The movie's skeptical view of heroism and politics are a welcome tonic in an era of spin and image management. McDowell reminisces fondly on the commentary track. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

It's about time!
A great satire of Victorian England and most especially Victorian era Hollywood movies. Lots of laughs in most unusual settings. Who would have guessed Bismark would make such a comic subject? Hard to imagine why this has taken so long to make it to DVD. The only thing too disappointing about this movie is that it was the only one done to date from the immortal Flashman series, certainly Flashman in Afghanistan would be very timely and on target today, but at least the author Fraser and the director teamed up again on the Three Musketeer movies. I'll be happy to challenge to a duel anyone who dares to question my devotion to the books as long as they allow my friend to load the pistols.

Malcolm at his Best!
Two great actors, Macolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange, Time After Time) and Oliver Reed (Tommy) are at their best in this hilarious movie. It's based on Otto von Bismarck's rise to power in Germany and a not-so-heroic English hero Thomas Flashman (McDowell).

Flashman, who gained fame after being found unconscious draped in the Union Jack, had actually been trying to tear it down to appease Afghani invaders. The movie begins with his near escape from a gambling risqué house (in true Victorian style, the women daringly showing their petticoats). After goading Bismarck into a hilarious boxing match in which Bismarck is beaten silly by one of "the lower orders." Bismarck swears to remember Flashman as Flahsh laughs gleefully at the mayhem he arranged. Later Bismarck lures and then kidnaps Flashman into posing as German count because the real one has caught "Cupid's Measles" and can't attend his own wedding. In humor typical of the movie, Flashman is captured after the woman he expects to sleep with is replaced by an overweight stranger. After momentary surprise, Flashman says "well, since you're here," and proceeds with the task until stopped.

Flashman makes a hilarious cowardly hero as he barely manages to shine after a cowardly or vice-inspired act. Particularly funny and original is the poking fun of Victorian morals. The movie also has some good scenery, including and a beautiful segment with Wagnerian overture at the beginning of a hunt ("have the doggies found the boar yet"). A great and underappreciated actor, Oliver Reed does an excellent job of the very serious Otto von Bismarck. It's only too bad that more movies like this weren't made. Flashman serves as the perfect anti-hero type that we so miss from the screen these days.

Pretty disappointing!
As a long-time fan of the 'Flashman' book series, I was pretty disappointed to see what a hack job had been done with this, especially when considering the high caliber of some of the actors used. It is apparent throughout that a lack of money available for production, as well as a very tight filming schedule really hampered the final result. But more to the point, out of all the many adventures of Flashman, why the heck did they choose this one, which is nothing more than a hasty 'rewrite' of 'The Prisoner of Zenda??' While amusing as a book (the charm of the Flashman series is that Flashman is always somehow involved in all of the major historical events of the latter part of the 19th century; think 'Forest Gump' with sex and fancy uniforms. 'The Prisoner of Zenda' has been done many times, so I can't think what the producers and directors were thinking of when they produced this, especially when they hoped that they be able to produce sequels! Extremely bad planning, and a waste of a lot of quite brilliant material! I can only hope that one day, another filming group will 'rediscover' Flashman and do the job properly! Are you listening Hollywood???