Royal Flash

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A quick rundown of this product’s key features:

Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.1 x 5.42 x 0.58 inches; 2.93 ounces
Media Format ‏ : ‎ Blu-ray, Color
Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ English
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00HRC4I3E
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1

Our Top Reviews

Reviewer: Sharon
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great until we get a series reboot.
Review: The only screen adaptation of the Flashman novels. A romp worth seeing. Would love to see the whole series adapted, if they could find the right man for the lead role in 10 films spanning 6 decades.

Reviewer: Yankee station
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Five Stars
Review: Great movie ,good price,quickly shipped. THX

Reviewer: Trevor Willsmer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: “Never hit a man when he’s down. He may get up.”
Review: Despite the enduring popularity of George Macdonald Fraser’s novels, the exploits of Harry Flashman, the school bully who made Tom Brown’s schooldays such an ordeal and whose subsequently chronicled military career saw him popping up across the globe at historically propitious moments, didn’t have much luck with the big screen. An attempt to film Flashman, the first novel, with John Alderton as the bounder and Richard Lester directing was cancelled only days before shooting was scheduled to start in 1970 and even after Lester and Macdonald were coming off the success of The Three and Four Musketeers, 1975’s Royal Flash came almost as close to being cancelled before a last-minute change of studios saved the day only for the film’s box-office failure to kill off all hope of sequels. Which is a shame, because it’s a wonderful comedy adventure spin on The Prisoner of Zenda (the novel’s conceit is that it was Anthony Hope who stole the idea after Flashman told him of his exploits) which just happens to involve real historical figures like Otto Von Bismarck (a coldly pompous Oliver Reed), Lola Montes (Florinda Bolkan), King Ludwig of Bavaria and even bare-knuckle boxer-turned-Member of Parliament John Gully (`Our `Enry’ Copper, dubbed by Norman Rossington).Flashman’s certainly a wonderful comic hero for an increasingly cynical and disillusioned age. The hero of Afghanistan is almost the British Empire incarnate in all its self-righteous self-serving cynicism, a shamelessly xenophobic exploiter who wraps himself up in all the great British values he doesn’t hold but who still constantly ends up doing some good by complete accident and bad luck while trying to fill his boots. He’s not exactly a complete coward, though he always tries to manipulate the odds in his favour (“Come on down and fight like a man.” “Don’t be ridiculous!”), he’s certainly a braggart and a bigot and the kind of person who is always absolutely guaranteed to let you down and steal your girlfriend and your last five pounds in the process, yet, as Big George Webley says in one of the DVD and Bluray’s accompanying featurettes, you still want to be his mate.While Fraser’s first choice for the role, Errol Flynn, was too dead and his second, David Niven, too old, Malcolm McDowall makes a very pleasing and surprisingly acrobatic substitute even if the surface emphasis shifts from charm to selfishness, and he’s surrounded by an excellent supporting cast – Alan Bates on wonderfully witty form and an excellent foil for McDowall in the Rupert of Hentzau role, Britt Ekland cast against type as a frigid duchess, Alastair Sim (not given much to do in one of his last roles), Lionel Jeffries, Tom Bell, Joss Ackland, Christopher Cazenove (who could have made a decent Flashman himself had his profile been higher), Michael Hordern, Bob Hoskins and David Jason. It’s given top notch production values too, from cinematography by Geoffrey Unsworth to production design by Terence Marsh and some excellent location work in Bavaria. All of which would just be window dressing if it weren’t for the film’s wickedly entertaining sense of fun that at once manages to debunk period swashbucklers while celebrating them, with Lester throwing in some wonderful sight gags (one with a bored maid washing the floor at an especially dramatic moment in the story is a particular gem) without losing sight of the story. As the TV spot included on the disc says, it’s `A terribly funny film with absolutely no redeeming social value,’ and one which definitely seems to have improved with age.Like Fox’s DVD release, Twilight Time’s limited edition region-free Blu-ray of the general release version doesn’t offer any of the deleted scenes (the film was trimmed after previewing badly, losing Arthur Lowe and Roy Kinnear’s scenes) but does have the same satisfying extras package, pride of place going to an enjoyable audio commentary with McDowall affectionately looking back on the film (he’s particularly good on his warm relationship with Bates and how they had to rewrite the script to appeal to his admitted vanity and on Sim’s tendency to sputter his lines causing him to despair of having to dub his lines). Also included are two featurettes featuring Fraser and both his admirers and some of those who worked on the film, one on the making of the film, the other on the Flashman books, and isolated music and effects track and a booklet (a different one to that included on Fox’s DVD). The impressive transfer is a noticeable improvement over the DVD version, though like many 70s films it does occasionally have a deliberately diffused look.

Reviewer: beansy
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I am a massive fan of the Flashman novels by George Macdonald Fraser going back over 40 years, but this will be a review of the movie version of Royal Fash and this specific Blu-Ray release. For years I had the regular DVD which had few extras unfortunately, When I noticed this 2013 Odeon Entertainment Group BluRay release recently I jumped to make the purchase for my collection, attracted especially by the listed commentary by Malcolm McDowell and film historian Nick Redman as well as a couple of featurettes. The Blu-Ray transfer looks very good which helps because the movie was photographed by the acclaimed Geoffrey Unsworth in gorgeous locations. McDowell and Redman provide a good running commentary; although Malcolm seems a bit restless well into the movie this can be understood watching a 102 minute film and having to comment on your memories of a shoot many years ago. A scratchy movie trailer is included as well and is probably the best surviving copy. Other Amazon reviews cover the history of the book and movie, and you can find more details on Wikipedia and IMDb, but I’ll end in total agreement with the review in Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide: (*** 3 out of possible 4 stars) “Zippy Lester entry with a fine cast”. Sadly the movie never became the franchise series the producers hoped for because it was a disappointment at the box office. The series of 12 Flashman novels are well worth seeking out and will provide the reader many hours of entertainment and education.

Reviewer: Born Toby Wild
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I stumbled across this film , not normally something that happens with big film with a famous cast, by way of i was reading the book at the time ,i was stunned that there WAS a film of it at all , ive never heard of it or seen it on TV or mentioned in anything. If this is the same for you and your wondering should i see this , absolutely yes! in fact its a crime you’ve never been given the chance too. Having brought it blind so to speak i was impressed by ;1 the amount of famous faces in it ( its only rival on this score is perhaps Around the World in 80 Days)2 Its closeness too the book its based on .3 The location work is stunning, German castles and a bridge scene sword fight that looks really scary , im not sure i would have wanted to go on it in all that snow and no hand rail , and there’s an almighty drop!4 Its got some wonderful lines in it that make you smile5 It was a failure on its release and is still considered so , if it had been sold better we would have had a whole franchise of them like Bond (Flashman is very much like Bonds ancestor, only more cowardly )6 Nobody has thought to make another one of the books , History and fiction married together seamlessly . I’m going to put it down to bad advertising as to why it was a failure , the poster and film title not seam to help much can you imagine a Bond film poster having about 8 stars names and faces on it ? ‘Flash Harry’ might have been a better title for the film as it tell you who the hero is, and is a phrase most people have heard of.Enjoy the terrible randy rascal Harry as he takes on Germanys finest single handed and one bed at a time!

Reviewer: Eerazor
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I have my old man to thank for me getting to know Flashman! A fantastic whimsical character that can only be described as devious, spineless yet incredibly lucky and a pathiological lyer! Add a dash of humour to it and you have something that is indeed very entertaining! Just ignore the obvious special effects, blu-rays are rather nasty to old films 🙂 (Wires clearly visible etc.)

Reviewer: R. Hayes
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I’ve been working my way through the Flashman books, having found that George MacDonald Fraser’s “The Light’s on at Signpost” went down well with me (I am an irascible 68 year old who despairs of the modern world!) and I am thoroughly enjoying these books too (if you get them for Kindle it makes the many footnotes so much more accessible, and I’ve been amazed to find so many of the extraordinary characters and events are based on historical truth) so I thought I’d take a look at this, the only one of the Flashman series to make it to the cinema.I bought mine from one of the through sellers (Classic Films Direct from A2B Media) and was satisfied I got a reasonable, though not perfect, HD version of the film (it looks a bit grainy in parts), delivered in good time and, given that cutting a book down to 102 mins inevitably means a certain amount of re-writing, I think it’s a pretty faithful version of the book.It seems a great shame that this did not turn into a series, but maybe the time was not right and I think this was probably not the best book to film. I can’t see any more being made now, I’m afraid. The books would need to be awfully hacked about to protect modern sensibilities and the time for casts of thousands (for example, to depict the first Sikh War) also seems to have slipped away.But I can recommend this film as something of an introduction to Flashman if you’ve not read any yet, and not going to offend you if you have already read and love the books.

Reviewer: A. W. Wilson
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This Odeon release from Aug 2013 is a good quality 1.66.1 ratio transfer. Good colour and sound with extras-a commentary with Mcdowell, a featurette “Inside Royal Flash and trailer. All at a currently reasonable price on Amazon. The following is purely personal and can be ignored if you don’t know the film. Why didn’t I like it much? To be honest, I really couldn’t say. Why this failed for me when the same director did so well with The Musketeer films which very much in the same lighthearted action vein. Perhaps it was the script, or Malcolm McDowell, an actor I like, and here he gives 100% but somehow… Reed would have been better but he was now too old and, well, bulky! There were good bits, namely Florinda Bolkan (sorry Mr Salter…”Wooden”???, she is one of my favourite actresses and it is quite hard to find her films on DVD), and Brit Ekland who both give good performences, Bates is good and his duel with Malc. is very well filmed. Reed is of course alone well worth the price. It’s just the whole mood of the film didn’t sit well with me and the “guest appearences are mainly wasted (Sim in particular). Perhaps I just wasn’t in the mood and if you read some of the other reviews (inc Mr Bob S.) you will get a very different opinion. You pays rour money…