The Moonraker

Watch: The Moonraker

Overview:

After the battle of Worcester at the end of the Civil War, the main aim of Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth is to capture Charles Stuart. The future king's escape depends on the intrepid Earl of Dawlish, who as the Moonraker has already spirited away many Royalists. Dawlish travels to the Windwhistle Inn on the south coast to prepare the escape, where he meets Anne Wyndham, the fiancée of a top Roundhead colonel.

Director:

David MacDonald

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Key words:

based on play or musical
swashbuckler
english civil war
highwayman
17th century

Cast

George Baker

~ as ~

Anthony, Earl of Dawlish/The Moonraker

Sylvia Syms

~ as ~

Anne Wyndham

Marius Goring

~ as ~

Colonel John Beaumont

Peter Arne

~ as ~

Major Gregg/Edmund Tyler

Clive Morton

~ as ~

Lord Harcourt

Gary Raymond

~ as ~

Charles Stuart

Richard Leech

~ as ~

Henry Strangeways

Iris Russell

~ as ~

Judith Strangeways

Michael Anderson Jr.

~ as ~

Martin Strangeways

Paul Whitsun-Jones

~ as ~

Parfitt

View full cast & crew

Reviews (1)

CinemaSerf
Written 2 month(s) ago
7
I always enjoyed this adventure yarn when I was a kid, and despite George Baker being about as wooden as a picket fence, I think it’s still an entertaining Cavalier/Roundhead story. With King Charles I now dead, the forces of the Commonwealth are focussing on catching his heir, the new King Charles II who is being helped by a few loyal royalists to make it to the safety of France. Hot on his heels, though, are the tenacious “Col. Beaumont” (Marius Goring) and the master of disguises “Maj, Greig”. We know all along who the mysterious “Moonraker” is, and for the next eighty minutes we follow his escapades as he tries to smuggle his very valuable cargo out of harms way. It all comes to an head in a seaside inn where a coach party are gathered and where you just know the swords are going to be flourishing. Sylvia Syms, whose “Anne” just happens to be the fiancée of the pursuing Colonel is also amongst their number, though her role is reduced to one of a rather simpering character and there is a great deal of script for us to wade through here but Paul Whitsun-Jones raises his game as the amiably pompous “Parfitt” who manages to make “nincompoop” sound a great deal nastier than we are used to. It moves along nicely with plenty happening until an exciting cliff top denouement that might have come from Daphné du Maurier, and if you like your derring-do done Hammer style, then you ought to like this. I did.