The Moonraker is a 1957 British swashbuckler film directed by David MacDonald and starring George Baker, Sylvia Syms, Marius Goring, Gary Raymond, Peter Arne, John Le Mesurier and Patrick Troughton.

The film depicts a fictionalised account of the escape of Charles II, arranged by the Earl of Dawlish, who leads a double life as a roundhead-baiting highwayman called The Moonraker.

However, the dashing Royalist hero nicknamed The Moonraker prepares to smuggle him to safety into France, under the noses of Cromwell's soldiers.

According to the story, the hero is named after the smuggler term, moonrakers, who were reputed to hide contraband in the village pond and to rake it out by moonlight.

In February 1952 Robert Clark of Associated British proposed that his company purchase the film rights as a vehicle for Audrey Hepburn, whom they had under contract, and either David Niven or Cornel Wilde.

Rather than display a preference for the attractive and swashbuckling Cavaliers (as is so often evident in British popular culture), Clark's film takes care to establish the moral superiority of the Roundheads.

Its soldiery are on the whole presented as moral men convinced of the probity of their cause, and Cromwell (John Le Mesurier) is a dignified and balanced leader.

[citation needed] Sylvia Syms and Peter Arne were under long-term contract to ABPC at the time.