The Adventures Of Gerard (1970)

Set during the Napoleonic wars, a vain and egotistical French brigadier (Peter McEnery) thinks highly of himself. He is hopelessly devoted to his emperor Napoleon (Eli Wallach) who thinks the brigadier is a fool and uses him as a decoy to be caught by the British. Based on THE EXPLOITS OF BRIGADIER GERARD by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and directed by Jerzy Skolimowski (THE SHOUT). Comedic swashbucklers can fun but they need wit and style and this movie sorely lacks both. Richard Lester's THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1973) is probably the benchmark for this sort of thing and this incoherent travesty is a shambles. The actors try their best but to no avail and director Skolimowski who excels in quirky offbeat films like THE SHOUT and DEEP END seems like the wrong choice for something like this. You can see where the laughs are supposed to be but the whole thing is just too obvious. With Claudia Cardinale, Jack Hawkins, Mark Burns, Veronique Vendell and John Neville.