THE FLAME AND THE ARROW (1950) **1/2 In which Burt Lancaster is called a "dirty-faced son of a toilet." Swashbuckling acrobatic fun, an Italian variation on Robin Hood. A bit deeper, a slightly profound commentary on (lack of) child custody laws back in the early days, and the effect that one party might have on them if she ran off and married an idiotic nobleman (rather than appeal to an appellate court, you had to start a revolution). Jacques Tourneur doesn't have as much black and white to work with as usual, but he compensates with some beautiful painted landscapes-someone should bring those back in an art flick of some sort, maybe something about a painter! Virginia Mayo spends most of the film shackled in an iron dog collar, trying to get any guy who wanders by to talk to her. Lancaster's political allegiances are new, and don't hold together particularly well, but there's history in the loyalty of acrobats.
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