Mirisch. Director John Huston; Producer William N. Graf; Screenplay James R. Webb; Camera Freddie Young, Edward Scaife; Editor Russel Lloyd; Music Ken Thorne; Art Director Stephen Grimes
John Hurt
Pamela Franklin
Nigel Davenport
Ronald Fraser
Robert Morley
Anjelica Huston
Sinful Davey is a bland, lethargic period comedy about a 19th-century teenage highwayman. A competent cast and a good James R. Webb screenplay are shot down by the club-footed, forced direction of John Huston, who seems to think that comedy is chatter, alternating with pratfall running and jumping.
Webb, it is said, discovered the ancient diary of David Haggart, subject of the piece, and the writer has, indeed, fashioned a good episodic story.
John Hurt has the title role, and other principal players include Nigel Davenport, a dedicated cop and Ronald Fraser and Fidelma Murphy, as Hurt's two genial associates in a series of daring robberies.
The script and cast, plus uniformly excellent below-the-line staffers are present, but the project founders on Huston's work.
(Color) Extract of a review from 1969. Running time: 95 MIN.
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