I loved all the characters he did. They all felt real to me and unique. I would defiantly listen to this narrator who I found to be really good. While visiting a small town, Sofia, Annika noticed a man and three women in their twenties. Intrigued by the way they were dressed, Annika followed them into the bookstore. She only found out that they were from Derbedrossivic, before she escaped when one of the women mistakened her for another person. During the 23rd Academy Awards for the films from 1950, it was nominated for Best Cinematography (Color) for Ernest Haller though the award went to Robert Surtees for King Solomon's Mines. A second nomination for the film for Best Musical Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture was received by Max Steiner. Still, the award went to Franz Waxman for Sunset Boulevard. And Burt has the charisma going full blast in this film. As well he would have to, otherwise why would the peasants be following him. It's an expansive part and no one could be as expansive as Burt Lancaster when the part called for it.

I especially love the elfin language about the two flowers and the bees. There is a deeper meaning about love in the elfin language. The courtship of Annika and Talvi is so sweet. There are so many clues on how Talvi felt about Annika but Annika kept flying into the wrong conclusions about Talvi. Talvi only revealed what Annika needs to know when she is ready to listen. In Annika's defense, she is scared of what would happen when she returned to her own world. Talvi can't follow her there since he doesn't have a job there and has never been to the States. She is scared that she and Talvi might not have a future in the human world. Burt Lancaster was a much more versatile actor than Errol Flynn; I could not, for example, imagine Flynn in "The Birdman of Alcatraz" or "Lawman" or "The Train". (Or if he had made a version of "The Train", it would have had had Labiche leaping from carriage to carriage across the roof of the train, fighting hand-to-hand duels against the Nazis in a desperate attempt to rescue the priceless artworks). Within his relatively narrow range, however, Flynn ruled supreme, and for all his athleticism Lancaster never quite brings to his role the panache and charisma that Flynn brought to his in "Robin Hood" and similar films. Narration was wonderful. A slightly British accent, with a not too deep voice. But when he went into different male characters, he pulled off thedeep and gravely just fine. Acceptable female renditions but I will always say that the male/female narration duo is the best.

Beautifully photographed in colour by the great Ernest Haller the movie has all the hallmarks of Warner's high production values. Adding greatly to the picture's proceedings is the wonderful Italianate score by Max Steiner! His ebullient music, like the picture, is a total delight especially his infectious and hum inducing main theme for Dardo scored for mandolins and orchestra and the gorgeous love theme for the scenes with Dardo & the lady Anne. There's a splendid driving battle theme too! Steiner's music was nominated for an Acadamy Award but lost out to Franz Waxman's darker "Sunset Boulevard". Burt also gets the opportunity to romance Allenby's niece Virginia Mayo who is being offered to a recently impoverished count Robert Douglas in the hopes of peace and unity. Douglas however is working an agenda all his own in The Flame And The Arrow. Mayo is curiously enough the mirror image of Baggett. She's bored with court life and finds certain attractions among the peasants especially the lusty and charismatic Lancaster. Taking place in medieval Lombardy, the province is part of the Holy Roman Empire and they have a particularly evil Hessian provincial governor in Frank Allenby, known as "the Hawk" for his partiality to falconry and for his rapacious designs. Five years before, Allenby just took for himself the bored wife of Burt Lancaster played by Lynne Baggett leaving him to raise their son Gordon Gebert. Instead of showing what this kind of crazy thrill ride could be, we just get more scenes of the brats fighting and calling each other names, while they conducted their relationship with all the maturity of a couple of middle schoolers. Good thing this was a long book because there's a whole different parallel world to be described. This isn't one of those wordy "have-to-mention-every-object" scripts but one full of movement, characters and new situations. I get some feel of a YA read but there is graphic sex at the adult level... Not too much though (darn). No heavy violence or language (unless you consider "shit" a no-no.

Allenby and Douglas prove to have the best parts as confirmed villains. But Lancaster along with Mayo as the love interest don't fare as well, as their fate seems wholly improbable (one scene in which Dardo survives hanging on the gallows with a special harness proves to be the most absurd moment in the entire drama). The final scene involves Dardo and Piccolo pretending to circus performers and in a Trojan Horse maneuver gain access to the castle where they use their acrobatic skills to defeat their oppressors. The studio claimed Lancaster did all of his own stunts and offered money if someone could prove otherwise. As it turned out, there were claims that some of the stunts were done by a stunt double but those claims were eventually thrown out of Court. My thanks to a couple of prior reviewers for this film in mentioning that Burt Lancaster had an athletic circus career prior to Hollywood. I didn't know that, but it confirms what I thought I saw in the picture, that Lancaster must have been doing a fair share of his own stunts. There were a couple of flips and rolls I wouldn't have expected but it sure looked like he wasn't using a stunt double, so one has to appreciate the gymnastic ability involved. The action is colourful if occasionally underpowered, the sets are fine, especially the castle interiors. Lancaster claimed to do all his own stunts but that seems very unlikely given the evidence and editing seen here, nevertheless it's his drive and energy which keeps the action moving. Mayo is fetching in her elaborate robes although her character seems too feisty to suddenly capitulate to Dardo's less than magnetic charms. Robert Douglas as the dashing but double-dealing Marquese and Frank Allenby as the tyrannical count are both very good in support. Cannaday did do a good job with the alternate world, the family, the other worldly creatures, etc, in book 1 -- but all that goes away when Annika goes home in book 2. The screaming queen, the fairy jokes, the unquestioning acceptance of her friends -- without any real discussion -- these aggravated me even as I mourned the gold Cannaday left on the ground.Don't do it, Annika," he taunted. His eyes were no longer bright and charming, but dark and intense, yet they still twinkled. He was tempting, but was he harmful?