mark.waltz The Napoleonic wars take on a comic twist with an "I'm so amusing!" attitude that makes it not quite so funny. It's history meets a combination of Mel Brooks, Monty Pyton and Benny Hill with a bit of the 40's style of the Gainsborough films thrown in. Based on stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ("Sherlock Holmes"), this is obviously influenced by the success of the Oscar Winning "Tom Jones", and ends up there with later historical spoofs, "Joseph Andrews" and "Yellowbeard", which were complete disasters.The legendary Eli Wallach is commanding as Napoleon, but his character becomes a joke from the get go with unfunny jokes about his height and made to look like a buffoon. That worked with Mel Brooks' assail on Hitler but here, it just isn't funny. Peter McEnerey plays the title character, a pompous colonel, tongue too far in cheek to be funny. Only Walkach and Claudia Cardinale as a Spanish countess are worthy of praise. The film is handsome to look at, but has a muffled sound recording that sounds like very bad dubbing.

gridoon2018 Leonard Maltin has been overly harsh with his BOMB ratings quite a few times, but unfortunately he's not too far off the mark on this one. "The Adventures Of Gerard" comes from the "Casino Royale" (1967) school of comedy - the more money the producers spend, the funnier the film is supposed to be. It's really quite an imposing, big-scale production with lots of extras, horses, explosions, etc. But there are no laughs in it. The puzzlingly bad script is based on an Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes) story - I'm assuming a lot of it got botched in translation (4 different people working on the same script is usually not a good sign). Eli Wallach must be the most miscast Napoleon ever, and even the absolute goddess Claudia Cardinale cannot help this disaster much. * out of 4.

vandino1 Except for the easily entertained, who should always be ignored for their obvious stupidity, this film is a lumbering bore. McEnery is saddled with the hideously written title character who annoys one and all from the first scene to the last. He is that old standby: the oblivious vainglorious military schmuck. The adventures he engages in are more like antics, with lots of frantic activity in a vain attempt to provide humor. But Gerard is such an unwavering clod that he becomes tiresome very quickly, yet you're stuck with him until the end of this fiasco (that is if you decide to keep watching). Cardinale is quite fetching, as always, and Wallach tries as Napoleon, but the script lets them all down. The story is some dull nonsense about Napoleon in need of an idiot officer to bring a false dispatch to the enemy to wreak havoc. Gerard gets the thankless job but becomes an unexpected hero as the story unwinds. Quite predictable. It all takes place during Napoleon's war in Spain, but this is NOT something to look at if you're a fan of the 'Sharpe' series by Cornwell that takes place in the same venue. This film was barely released, deservedly, and remains fitfully buried to this day. Hopefully no where near Conan Doyle's final resting place.

Charles_Bronson I saw this movie this morning and I must say it does not deserve one star. I admit, this movie is not exactly a CLASSIC per se but it has its share of funny moments. I'm not much of a fan of OLD movies but this one has charm to it. You have the lovely Claudia Cardinale of 'Once Upon a Time in the West' fame and Eli Wallach in this movie...good cast and an alright movie.It's supposed to be an adventure/comedy and sees to be more alongside the genre of Comedy more than anything. It's funny but not downright hilarious in parts and the adventure seems more comical than serious.Eh, not bad. **+/****