Scaramouche (1952)

I saw this movie the day after I saw, for the nth time, Errol Flynn/Erich Korngold/Michael Curtiz's masterpiece, The Adventures of Robin Hood. This movie doesn't stand up well in comparison. It's the same genre, the historical costume action drama. But while Robin Hood holds up wonderfully even after repeated viewing, this movie, for me, fell flat.I'm not sure that I can tell you why. The script, certainly, is not as clever. Granger, certainly, doesn't have the flair Flynn did. The director here did not know how to create excitement the way Curtiz did. Certainly one big difference was the lack of a score that helped create excitement, as Korngold's did and this one does not. Part of the problem, for me, is that too often Granger lacks the sort of self-confidence that makes Flynn's Robin Hood so winning. Perhaps there are other reasons. In the end, however, I found this movie of no interest. I could definitely never get myself to sit through it again.

Jimmy Grainger,lovely chap that he was,did not take many of his roles too seriously.Certainly in "Scaramouche"(more erudite pens than mine have gone to a lot of trouble in filling out the historical context) he had a lot of fun and even in his unhappy moments his sense of fun was never too far hidden. A nice line in striped tights did little to hide the fact that his legs were a bit muscular for a fencer,and Mr Mel Ferrer was much better equipped to wield the epee which he does with much aplomb. In the climactic swordfight(which was a devil of a long time coming,I must say)he comprehensively outplays Jimmy but contrives to lose;almost as though he was betting against himself. The French revolution is a fertile ground for film makers with good goodies and horrible baddies although I must say Miss Nina Foch made Marie Antoinette into a far more likable character than is usual. Thousands of innocents went to Madame La Guillotine in a bloodletting that is chilling to contemplate 220 - odd years later. But real life is never allowed to sneak into "Scaramouche",and it is all the better for it. All the same,if I was Mr Mel Ferrer I would be asking to see the judges' cards.......

"He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad"Scaramouche is a romantic revenge adventure brought to us by MGM. It's based on the 1921 novel Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini. The story was also filmed as a silent film in 1923 that starred Ramon Novarro. Directed by George Sidney (Anchors Aweigh/Kiss Me Kate), it stars Stewart Granger, Eleanor Parker, Janet Leigh, Mel Ferrer and John Dehner. It's produced by Carey Wilson from a screenplay by Ronald Millar and George Froeschel. The original music score was composed by Victor Young and the cinematography by Charles Rosher. Do you want your buckle swashed? Would you like to be whisked away on an adventure with beautiful women and handsome men at every turn? All played out in sumptuous Technicolor? Where the sets and costumes are of a very high quality and the choreography of the sword play is as good as it gets? If yes then Scaramouche is the film for you. A classic swashbuckler in the truest sense of the saying. The makers have simplified Sabatini's novel to make the film family friendly, the script is literate and witty, while the cast attack the material with gleeful relish. Particularly Granger, who smirks his way thru the piece with debonair ease; and Mel Ferrer who delivers one of the finest villains the genre has thrown up. At the core of the film is the longest filmed ever sword duel at six and a half minutes, every second of which is vibrant, bold, and yes, damn sexy too. Sidney's direction is very astute because the pace never sags and there's just enough characterisation to make us root for the hero and to boo the villain. Whilst the piece rightly in its approach work never resorts to being a boorish history lesson. Even the love triangle {poor Stewart has both the sensual Parker and the sweet Leigh lusting after him!} never cloys the story, and in fact gives the film a solid centre as the outer edges merge into its adventure based being. Not as famous as some of Errol Flynn or Tyrone Powers' sword play movies, but it should be because it's a rapier ripper of a movie. 8/10

In Scaramouche Stewart Granger hides among a troupe of strolling players while vowing vengeance upon Mel Ferrer who killed Granger's foster brother Richard Anderson. Vengeance however is not a simple matter.Mel Ferrer plays a foppish privileged aristocrat, favorite of the French Queen Marie Antoinette who's got a deadly blade and killed many a rival, political and personal. Who he has in his sights now is Anderson who is another aristocrat, but a minor one who has taken to hanging out with revolutionaries and publishing incendiary pamphlets.Ferrer is like a hired gun in the old west, the kind who would goad some poor schnook into a draw and then kill him in 'self defense'. He's unpopular, but damned effective. For Granger to take him on, he's going to have to learn the art of fencing and learn it quickly.Granger has two women who love him as well, Eleanor Parker from the troupe of players and Janet Leigh another aristocrat who in this case has been promised to wed Ferrer. That gives the Granger-Ferrer rivalry an added incentive for both men to kill the other.The sets on Scaramouche were quite lavish, why they weren't considered for an Oscar nomination is a mystery. The cast settles nicely into familiar roles and performs well. Elizabeth Risdon and Lewis Stone play Anderson's parents and Granger's guardian. They get a stipend from Granger's unknown father to conceal his origins. The last three films for Lewis Stone, this one, The Prisoner of Zenda and All The Brothers Were Valiant were all done with Stewart Granger. Scaramouche is a nice tale of adventure and romance in those final days before the French Revolution. It's interesting to speculate just how all these characters might have survived the coming Reign Of Terror in a few years. Things got so insane in France then, it's anybody's guess. One could write all kinds of speculation.Still I would speculate and still enjoy Scaramouche.