The Norman Swordsman (1972)

Original title: La Spada Normanna

Sword. Italy/Spain/France. Starring Mark Damon & Krista Nell. Directed by Roberto Mauri.

VTC (Sweden). English dubbed. Widescreen.

Devil's Cavaliers (1959)

Original title: I Cavalieri del Diavolo

Sword. Italy. Starring Frank Latimore, Gianna Maria Canale, Anthony Steffen & Andrea Aureli. Directed by Siro Marcellini.

Worldwide Video (Holland). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Very dated and stiff costume adventure with lots of jolly (read: annoying) song and dance numbers. 2/5

The Prisoner of the Iron Mask (1961)

Original title: La Vendetta della Maschera di Ferro

Sword. Italy/France. Starring Michel Lemoine, Wandisa Guida, Andrea Bosic, Jany Clair & Nando Tamberlani. Directed by Henri Decoin & Francesco De Feo.

Cine Video Distribution (Belgium). French language with dutch subtitles. Letterboxed.

The Black Duke (1963)

Original title: Il Duca Nero

Sword. Italy/Spain. Starring Cameron Mitchell, Conrado San Martín, Maria Grazia Spina, Gloria Milland, Robert Dean & Franco Fantasia. Directed by Pino Mercanti.

Video Cronos (Greece). German dubbed. Fullscreen.

The Barbarians (1953)

Original title: Il Sacco di Roma

Sword. Italy. Starring Pierre Cressoy, Hélène Rémy, Luigi Tosi, Alfredo Varelli & Vittorio Sanipoli. Directed by Ferruccio Cerio.

DVD: Wellspring (USA). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

The Fifth Musketeer (1979)

Sword. Austria/West Germany. Starring Sylvia Kristel, Ursula Andress, Beau Bridges, Cornel Wilde, Ian McShane, Alan Hale Jr., Lloyd Bridges, José Ferrer, Olivia de Havilland & Rex Harrison. Directed by Ken Annakin.

DVD: Bakker (Holland). English language. Widescreen. Good quality.

The obscure follow-up to Richard Lester's musketeer hits The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers. Watch out for some really old musketeers! While far from classic, it's not bad actually, i'd say pretty entertaining even. This dutch DVD has the "naughty" 116 min cut with lots of nudity courtesey of Mrs. Kristel & Andress. In other words: get this DVD and not the PG-rated US one. 3/5

The Sword of El Cid (1962)

Original title: La Spada del Cid

Sword. Spain. Starring Roland Carey, Chantal Deberg, Andrés Mejuto, Sandro Moretti, Luis Induni & Daniel Martín. Directed by Miguel Iglesias.

Videotechnics S.A (Spain). Spanish language with no subtitles. Letterboxed.

The Executioner of Venice (1963)

Original title: Il Boia di Venezia

Sword. Italy. Starring Lex Barker, Guy Madison, Alessandra Panaro ,Mario Petri, Alberto Farnese & Raf Baldassarre. Directed by Luigi Capuano.

Force Video (USA). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Quite good little costume adventure in which Barker and Madison are pitted against each other. 3/5

Cavalier in Devil's Castle (1959)

Original title: Il Cavaliere del Castello Maledetto

Sword. Italy. Starring Massimo Serato, Luisella Boni, Pierre Cressoy, Livio Lorenzon,
Carlo Tamberlani & Luciano Marin. Directed by Mario Costa.

Video For Pleasure promo (Holland). English dubbed. Widescreen.

Colorful, fast-paced and all around fun swashbuckler made just the way you want 'em. Recommended! 4/5

The Mysterious Swordsman (1956)

Original title: Lo Spadaccino Misterioso

Sword. Italy. Starring Frank Latimore, Fiorella Mari, Gérard Landry & Andrea Aureli. Directed by Sergio Grieco.

Video Art (Greece). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Dated, uninteresting swashbuckler with Frank Lantimore. Avoid if you're not a fanatic. 2/5

They Were Called Three Musketeers But They Were Four (1973)

Original title: Li Chiamavano i Tre Moschettieri... Invece Erano Quattro

Sowrd/Comedy. Italy. Starring Tony Kendall, Ettore Manni, Stan Cooper &
Seyna Seyn. Directed by Silvio Amadio.

Videoklubben (Sweden). English dubbed. Letterboxed.

From the director of the great gialli Amuck and Smile Before Death comes this bizzarre costume slapstick with nudity, toilet humor, swashbuckling and even some (bad) kung fu! I know i've expressed praise for such daft adventure/slapstick atrocities such as Ricci's Robin Hood, Arrows, Beans and Karate, but this is where I draw the line. 2/5

Zorro and the Three Musketeers (1963)

Original title: Zorro e i Tre Moschettieri

Zorro/Sword. Italy. Starring Gordon Scott, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Livio Lorenzon & Maria Grazia Spina. Directed by Luigi Capuano.

Wahlters Video/Cinehollywood (Sweden). English dubbed. Letterboxed (slightly).

I know I have seen this one, but I can't remember a thing about it... and that's probably not a good sign. 2/5

Merry Musketeers (1967)

Original title: Vella Kalpi

Sword. Latvia/Soviet Union. Starring Eduards Pavuls, Olga Drege & Karlis Sebris. Directed by Aleksandrs Leimanis.

Scand Video (Sweden). English dubbed. Letterboxed.

Watch out, it's the Latvian three musketeers! Unfortunely they did not impress me, at least not in this badly dubbed, heavily edited international 67 min version. Seems to be a fondly remembered title for people in Latvia. 2/5

The Kings of France (1959)

Original title: I Reali di Francia

Sword. Italy. Starring Rik Battaglia, Chelo Alonso, Gérard Landry, Livio Lorenzon, Liana Orfei & Carlo Tamberlani. Directed by Mario Costa.

EKO (UK). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

I had a really hard time sitting through this film, due to the completely worthless dubbing. Two or three bored dubbers do all the voices with a complete lack of feeling - and you could still hear the italian dub in the background! My grade represents this crap version of the film. 2/5

Knights of Terror (1964)

Sword. Italy/France/Spain. Starring Tony Russell, Yves Vincent, Scilla Gabel, Carla Calò & Pilar Clemens. Directed by Mario Costa.

EVC (Holland). English dubbed. Letterboxed.

Superior gothic swashbuckler. Recommended! 4/5

Son of El Cid (1964)

Original title: I Cento Cavalieri

Sword. Italy/Spain/West Germany. Starring Mark Damon. Directed by Vittorio Cottafavi.

Azzura Home Video (Italy). Italian language. Fullscreen.

Devil's Cavaliers (1959)

Original title: I Cavalieri del Diavolo

Sword. Italy. Starring Frank Latimore, Gianna Maria Canale, Anthony Steffen & Andrea Aureli. Directed by Siro Marcellini.

Video Alsen (Greece). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Very dated and stiff costume adventure with lots of jolly (read: annoying) song and dance numbers. 2/5

The Scourge of the Barbarians (1962)

Original title: Re Manfredi

Sword. Italy. Starring Ken Clark, Gérard Landry, Moira Orfei & Piero Lulli. Directed by Paolo Lombardo & Piero Regnoli.

Pepikahs Video (Greece). English dubbed. Fullscreen. Not the best print.

The Black Tulip (1964)

Original title: Le Tulipe Noire

Sword. France/Italy/Spain. Starring Alain Delon & Virna Lisi. Directed by Christian-Jaque.

VLC (UK). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Seriously annoying Zorro-type film set during the french revolution. Watch the 1975 Zorro instead if you want Delon in swashbuckling mode. 1/5

Rampage of Evil (1961)

Original title: Capitani di Ventura

Sword. Italy. Starring Mario Petri, Paul Muller, Wandisa Guida, Luigi Batzella & Gérard Landry. Directed by Angelo Dorigo.

Broadway Video (Holland). English dubbed. Fullscreen.

Fun swashbuckler that must have felt old-fashioned even on it's 1961 release. Pretty violent for this kind of film though. Easily confused with another early sicties italian adventure film called Rampage of Evil (Il Capitano di Ferro) starring gothic horror queen Barbara Steele (let me know if you have that one!). 3/5