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Spirited adaptation of one of George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman novels, which follow cowardly, lascivious, lovable Harry Flashman--the bully from Tom Brown's Schooldays--through a military career that lands him in the center of seemingly every major historical event of the 19th Century. Here, Flashman (Malcolm McDowell) is found toadying in Continental high society, where he encounters a young Otto von Bismarck (Oliver Reed) and sinister nobleman Rudi von Sternberg (Alan Bates). They use Flashman to advance their political schemes, hatching a plan by which he must pose as a Prussian nobleman and wed a duchess (Britt Eckland). Inevitably, Flashman is exposed; kinetic swordplay and hairsbreadth escapes ensue as our antihero quakes with abject terror. Lester's energetic direction enlivens the baroque plot; movie buffs will recognize frequent echoes of THE PRISONER OF ZENDA (1937).