The Highwayman (1951 film) - Alchetron, the free social encyclopedia

The Highwayman is a 1951 Cinecolor film based on the poem of the same name by Alfred Noyes. Noyes wrote in his autobiography that he was pleasantly surprised by "the fact that in this picture, produced in Hollywood, the poem itself is used and followed with the most artistic care". Released by Allied Artists who acquired the rights to Noyes' poem, the film was released in the same year as Columbia Pictures' Dick Turpin's Ride/The Lady and the Bandit also based on a poem by Noyes. Portions of the film were shot at Corriganville movie ranch.

The highwayman from the movie

Plot

The fairly straightforward love/betrayal/sacrifice theme of the Noyes poem is expanded to fill out the demands of an 82-minute-long film. The Highwayman himself is an aristocrat who leads a party of associates to hold up the well-to-do and distribute their takings to the needy. This campaign is broadened when they discover that innocents are being kidnapped and sold into slavery in the colonies. The finale however follows the poem more closely as the Highwayman is betrayed to the authorities, soldiers march to set an ambush, his lover Bess sacrifices herself to give warning and the hero is shot down on the highway as he gallops to take revenge.