***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS***
This familiar tale set in Renaissance Italy has been done many times both before and after this entry. It concerns a young noble Raniero (played by a young Jacques Sernas six years before his stunning entry into the international peplum genre as Paris in Warner's 1955 "Helen of Troy") returning to his home country after traveling, only to find the nasty Barone Godfredo (lanky and loathsome Paul Muller)tyrannizing the populace. The two meet at an inn where the young innkeeper is celebrating his marriage, the festa is interrupted by the Baron. The Baron commands that the young couple appear at his castle, where noble Raniero is also bound as a guest. Later when the couple appears as demanded, the Baron insists on the right of "droit de signeur", meaning to exercise his right to the first night bedding the new wife. When the couple pleads for mercy, the angry baron has his henchmen bind and flog the husband, then shoot him with an arrow. The wife, in terror, jumps from the castle parapet. The horrified Raniero witnesses this and it prompts him to pretend that he is a meek and studious scholar, but he secretly vows revenge, becoming the daring "Red Falcon" a masked rebel rouser performing daring raids against the baron's army. The "Red Falcon" kidnaps Clothilde, Godfredo's intended bride on her way to the baron, forcing her to spend the "first night" in his lair, thus humiliating the baron. From then on it's deadly warfare between the two enemies coming to an exciting climax when Clothilde reveals his identity to the villainous baron and Raniero is imprisoned and tortured. This entertaining swashbuckler will keep you interested all the way to its rousing finale.
0 out of 0 found this helpful