ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses the contributions to the genre of directors, designers and fencing masters, as well as of the stars themselves, and presents the principal subjects if the swashbucklers pirates, highwaymen, cavaliers and knights. The lunatic fringe of the swashbuckling genre was represented by the oriental swashbuckler, a curious hybrid that resulted from the application of occidental swashbuckling motifs to an oriental setting and characters. The cinema is fantasy aspects of "The Thousand and One Nights" and the associated Arab folk-tales which have provided the richest source of inspiration. One of the cinema's unique qualities is its ability to spin wondrous dreams and fantasies, to give form and substance to the marvels and monsters of myth and legend. The most notable feature of the oriental swashbucklers is that although they utilize characters from Arabian tales such as Aladdin, Ali Baba and Sinbad, they reflect neither the ethos of the original stories nor the literary traditions of the East.
