The Scarlet Tunic

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The Scarlet Tunic ★★½ 1997

Based on the novella “The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion” by Thomas Hardy. It's 1802 in Hardy's fictional Wessex countryside where a light cavalry regiment of bored Germans, fighting with the British against Napoleon, has an encampment on the land of retired doctor Edward Groves (Shepherd). Groves' pretty daughter Frances (Fielding) is engaged to local businessman Humphrey Gould (Sessions) but, of course, she falls for dashing German hussar Matthaus Singer (Barr). Since this is a Hardy story, don't expect any happy endings. 101m/C VHS . GB Jean-Marc Barr, Emma Fielding, Simon Callow, John Sessions, Jack Shepherd, Andrew Tiernan, Thomas Lockyer; D: Stuart St. Paul; W: Stuart St. Paul, Mark Jenkins, Colin Clements; C: Malcolm McLean; M: John Scott. TV