The Loves and Times of Scaramouche

1976 film

Enzo G Castellari
Tito Carpi^[1]

Story byTito Carpi^[1]Produced byFederico Alcardi^[1]Starring

Michael Sarrazin
Ursula Andress
Aldo Maccione
Giancarlo Prete^[1]

CinematographyGiovanni Bergamini^[1]Edited byGianfranco Amicucci^[1]Music by

Franco Bixio
Fabio Frizzi
Vince Tempera^[1]

Production
companies

Embassy Pictures
Epee Cinematographica
Jadran Film
Lisa Film^[1]

Release date

17 March 1976 (1976-03-17)

Countries

Italy
Yugoslavia
Denmark^[1]

LanguagesItalian
English

The Loves and Times of Scaramouche (Italian: Le avventure e gli amori di Scaramouche) is a 1976 comedy film directed by Enzo G. Castellari.

Plot

Along with his sidekick Whistle (Giancarlo Prete), Scaramouche (Michael Sarrazin) unwittingly becomes entangled in a plot to assassinate Napoleon - only to find himself the unlikely object of desire for Napoleon's lascivious new bride, the Empress Josephine (Ursula Andress).

Cast

Michael Sarrazin as Scaramouche
Ursula Andress as Josephine De Beauharnais
Aldo Maccione as Napoleon Bonaparte
Giancarlo Prete as Whistle
Michael Forest as Danglar
Sal Borgese
Romano Puppo

Release

The Loves and Times of Scramouche was released on March 17, 1976.^[1]

Reception

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four and revealed that "I didn't stay for the whole movie, which is sort of unusual; I like to sit through even the worst films in the hopes of finding things more atrocious than I've already seen ... But 'Scaramouche' had such a deadening quality - it was so lacking in energy and invention and wit - that somehow I knew there was no hope."^[2] Richard Eder of The New York Times wrote, "This tedious, jumpy, inept effort to do still another comic take-off on historical swashbucklery is as bad as impalement."^[3] Arthur D. Murphy of Variety dismissed the film as "a banal Italo-Yugoslavian alleged comedy effort" that was "silly, juvenile, hokey and mostly vulgar nonsense."^[4] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film one star out of four and wrote that it "gets old fast unless you have an insatiable appetite for seeing actors beaned with salamis and butted with sabres."^[5] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called it "a lot of title for very little entertainment" and a "strenuous throwaway production."^[6] Linda Gross of the Los Angeles Times called it "a silly, slapstick spaghetti spoof of swashbuckling adventure movies" and "a badly-dubbed hodge-podge" which "lacks a deft historical perspective so even the artful battle footage by photographer Giovanni Bergamini looks like it belongs in another kind of movie."^[7] Maurizio Cavagnaro of the Genoese newspaper Corriere Mercantile defined the film as an "indigestible mess".^[8]

References

Footnotes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Kinnard & Crnkovich 2017, p. 110.
^ Ebert, Roger (March 24, 1976). "The Loves and Times of Scaramouche". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved December 21, 2018.
^ Eder, Richard (March 18, 1976). "Screen: Italian 'Scaramouche' at Showcase Theaters". The New York Times. 50.
^ Murphy, Arthur D. (March 17, 1976). "Film Reviews: The Loves And Times Of Scaramouche". Variety. 22.
^ Siskel, Gene (March 22, 1976). "'Scaramouche' very unfunny". Chicago Tribune. Section 3, p. 10.
^ Arnold, Gary (March 19, 1976). "Buckle Minus Swash". The Washington Post. B13.
^ Gross, Linda (April 28, 1976). "Scaramouche: A Ragged Rogue". Los Angeles Times. Part IV, p. 15.
^ Maurizio Cavagnaro (24 January 1976). "Le avventure e gli amori di Scaramouche". Corriere Mercantile.