The Lady and the Highwayman (1988)

Could the cinematography be worse? Is Michael York constantly ashamed of himself when he thinks of this movie? His first scene is hideous, so he can only get better thereafter. My favorite character is the judge -- his dry presence is one of the few moments where no one overacts. I only wish he was passing sentence on this movie! As for the character of Rudolf, this camp was made for John Lithgow (too bad he's not in it), but not even his comic overreaching could have tipped the scales for this film from serious period drama to serious farce. Strictly for the most die-hard fans of Hugh Grant. I give it three stars only for the locations, the costumes and the Judge!

From passion of romance to sword crossing action, this movie has a bit of everything. Starting in 1649 and then continuing through 1660, it follows the story of the highwayman "SilverBlade", and his efforts to protect the sister of one of his old friend's, all the while righting the wrongs still being committed after the common wealth was no longer in control of England.The lady Panthea Vyne first meets "SilverBlade" when he rescues her from a marriage to Lord Cromwell's tax collector -- which she believed would save his life. However, as she is soon after told, he has already died two weeks before. "SliverBlade" then decides to give her new husband a fair chance, and duels for his life.A few days later Panthea's Aunt Emma comes to steal her away, for -- as Aunt Emma explains it -- "I am a very old woman, I want you with me. Won't you come?".Soon after you learn that four years have passed, and the king has decided to marry a Portugise princess. Being that her aunt was once the nursemaid of the king, they are both invited to court to see the knew queen, where Pathea is the envy of every woman, including the king's old lover.As you continue to watch, the story of love, betrayal, and hope is spun around you, and at the end, you hope for what you know cannot be, just because it seems so unjust that the world would separate such a pair in so cruel a manor.After all this raving I have gone on with, you must be wondering why it only received an 8/10. Well, at least on the DVD version I have the graphics aren't exactly to the standard, even for the time. However, soon after starting the show, you forget completely about such things, and only think of the story.

This is a CAUTION to any considering the purchase of this title. My comments should not be taken as critical of the production. The key here is to carefully preview any copy of this title marketed by "EXTREAM DIGITAL MEDIA". I picked up a VHS copy at a video close out store. The sleeve had clear images of the principal actors, but the video quality was so poor I could not view the film. Thus my score should NOT be considered as valid. I had to enter something to continue. The video is not viewable, the quality of the image is so poor one could imagine it was made by using a cheep video camera to copy the film from a TV screen. There was not sufficient detail to identify the actors. Copies from other sources may provide a perfectly clear image, but not the copy in my possession distributed by Extreme Digital Media, bar code 674639501834

Don't! Oh, I know it's cheap - looks like a real bargain, eh? NOT! Put the wallet down and don't throw away your money. It's not even worth the $1.25 it routinely lists for on EBAY and HALF.com.In a decent print, this might be a fun bit of fluff. But, the DVD print is far from decent. It looks for all the world like an old re-copied and re-copied video tape. The poor video quality completely spoils the viewing experience - it's flat, muddy, blurry, and dark. I've never seen anything even remotely this bad in any retail video product, much less a DVD. It wasn't the greatest material to begin with - the script, dialogue, and acting are a bit dodgy and *quite* stagy. Some worthwhile stars are not allowed to shine (Oliver Reed, Hugh Grant, Michael York, John Mills). However, the costumes and sets are really quite nice - pity we can't appreciate them in this release.