After several films of profound melancholy and vaulting ambition, Huston took a turn for the picaresque with this fleet-footed, sharply observed, and consistently underrated adventure story. Adapted from the fanciful death-row autobiography of the Scottish rogue David Haggart, though shot entirely in Ireland (a country Huston had grown to love), Sinful Davey provided John Hurt with his first starring role and found Huston working in a giddier, more playful register than he had in years.