THE KING'S THIEF

US, 1955, 78 minutes, Colour.
Ann Blyth, Edmund Purdom, David Niven, George Sanders, Roger Moore, John Dehner, Melville Cooper.
Directed by Robert Z. Leonard.

The King’s Thief is a very slight action adventure from the early Cinemascope days. However, it receives lush MGM production values. Ann Blyth had appeared with Edmund Purdom a year earlier in The Student Prince. Here she is Lady Mary whose father has been executed by Charles II and his property confiscated. This has all been at the instigation of the evil Duke of Brampton – an unlikely David Niven. However, Lady Mary encounters a young man who has information about the Duke of Brampton. He is played by Edmund Purdom with Roger Moore as one of his gang. George Sanders had already played Charles II in the lush Forever Amber in 1946. here he has his second opportunity.

The film is quite routine – and undemanding entertainment.

1. What is the appeal of costume dramas, romance, history, fantasy? Escape into another world? How enjoyable is this? In this film?

2. The quality of the colour, widescreen, sets and costumes?

3. The importance of the adventure ingredients, the glimpses of royalty, duel scenes, love scenes, escape scenes, fights?

4. The quality of heroes, villains, heroines? Audience identification?

5. How conventional a hero was Michael? An attractive hero? His highwayman work? His relationship with Lady Mary? The fight, the duels, the threat of death?

6. How credible a villain was the Duke of Brampton? How evil? His plan for elimination of rivals, his testimony at the trial, his black book, his malice, his fight with Michael?

7. How attractive a heroine was Lady Mary?

8. The picture of King Charles the Second in his times, the Restoration, the Duke of Brampton's advice, his rewarding of Michael and Lady Mary?

9. The particular adventure sequences and their success, the highway robberies, life at the inn, the gallows, the duel, the stealing of the Crown Jewels?

10. What is the value of this kind of costume entertainment?