After playing a succession of winsome virgins it was perhaps inevitable that Helena Bonham Carter would be chosen to play the first of Barbara Cartland's chaste (and chased) heroines to make it to the screen. Produced by Gainsborough Pictures, (evoking memories of the original Gainsborough company's costume romps of the Thirties and Forties, such as The Wicked Lady) it's a high camp, all-star melodramatic affair, based on a novel written in 1948. Needless to say, in true Cartland style, the innocent, fragile heroine resists all the advances of the caddish villain and is swept away by the handsome hero, who just happens to have money and a title. Splendidly dotty, especially towards the end, this is quite enjoyably dire with some decent swordplay too.


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