Moviecut—Captain Lightfoot

source: Captain Lightfoot

Captain Lightfoot

Very unusual for a 1950's Universal costume adventure, Captain Lightfoot sports expensive, elaborate production values. It benefits greatly from extensive location shooting, beautifully photographed, and fancifully but tastefully colorful sets and costumes. Hudson and Rush are excellent as dashing hero and his spitfire lady. There's an effective mix of action, romantic comedy, and melodrama--all well staged. Too bad the script is weak; often the character relationships and decisions characters make stretch credibility to the point of distraction. Contrary to what a couple of other reviewers here said, I thought most of the supporting cast so-so, Abby Players or not. None of the fun, charisma, and panache that British-Hollywood baddies like Basil Rathbone, Claude Raines, and Henry Daniel brought to similar material.

This film is singularly lacking in power and excitement, despite actual lensing in Ireland in CinemaScope and color. Despite lavish production values, the story is weak, the dialogue weaker and the acting tepid. Sirk's perfunctory direction does not help. It's one of those films in which the music score attempts to do all the work of building up suspense, excitement and atmosphere — an attempt which is by no means a successful one. Every bit as boring as I remembered it on its first release, "Lightfoot" is not only thoroughly routine and thoroughly dull, but totally without interest in acting, writing, direction or production. It's dull enough with Jeff Morrow partnering Rock in "hairbreadth" escapades, but with the entry of Barbara Rush as Rock's romantic interest it gets even duller, even more predictable and even less interesting. You need a big supply of stay-awake pills to sit this one through.