The Affairs of Cellini (1934)

Fredric March stars as the notorious sculptor Cellini, who, as the title suggests, has many affairs in the 90-minute movie. It's a little bit silly when you watch it, almost as if the movie might be a spoof of itself, when Freddie repeatedly seduces his conquests. So, if you're the mood to laugh, you can rent it and treat it like a spoof, and if you're in the mood for a drama in the 1600s, you can take it seriously.Frank Morgan plays against type-and was rewarded by an Oscar nomination-in this movie, as a cruel duke who doesn't bat an eyelash at using torture as a punishment. Frank's wife is Constance Bennett, and when Freddie visits the palace, it isn't long before she falls under her spell. That might not be the smartest move, seeing how much of a bad guy her husband is. . .This movie won't hurt you if you decide to rent it, but it also won't end up being your favorite. It's not Freddie's best performance, and while Frank does do a good job, I prefer A Lost Lady which was released in 1934. Frank gets to play the romantic lead in that one; how rare is that!

A duke takes a lover, so what does the duchess do? Take one of her own, of course! It doesn't help that the duchess's lover has been marked for execution by the duke who has no idea of what's going on in his own palace.Obviously, the name of the game here is sex, although the production code wouldn't let them make that obvious. Constance Bennett is the flirtatious duchess, the younger wife of the Duke of Flirence, played by the Oscar nominated Frank Morgan. Bennett is attracted to sculptor Frederic March, playing the title character who is in love with innocent Fay Wray. When the duke meets Wray, he decides to add her to his court, and no intention of including Wray's bearded mother, the delightfully funny Jessie Ralph.Speeding by with Morgan definitely a scene stealer, this came in a year of Hollywood history lessons, all more based on Encyclopedia synopsis with fictional dramatic elements to flesh them out. This is pure entertainment and succeeds on the fact that it is obviously a historical fairy tale and that any resemblance between this and historical fact was a total accident.

Edwin Justus Mayer's play about the life of Renaissance master sculptor Benvenuto Cellini ran for 241 performances in 1924-25 and Joseph Schildkraut and Nana Bryant played Cellini and the Duchess of Florence on Broadway. However Frank Morgan repeats the role he did on Broadway as the Duke of Florence and from then on he was typecast.This was an interesting phenomenon showing the power of the cinema to typecast someone. Morgan had done this same role on Broadway and well, but he did all kinds of parts on stage and screen before The Affairs Of Cellini. But when he repeated this particular stage role he was forever typecast as the fumbling, bumbling fool. Very rarely in his screen career after The Affairs Of Cellini did he deviate from this, the movie-going public came to want to see him in many variations on the Duke Of Florence and from then on he was typecast.The story is a long bedroom Renaissance farce where the talented, but amorous Cellini is constantly getting in scrapes of one sort or another, always over a woman be she married or not. Fredric March plays Cellini and he steals a bit from Douglas Fairbanks's swashbuckling shtick. He's a good artist though and the indulgent Duke keeps forgiving him and the Duchess played by Constance Bennett has her eye on him.However one time when the Duke catches sight of the model that March is using he decides to invoke some of his noble powers to get her into his court. That arouses Bennett's ire and March is put out as well. He starts pushing the envelope real hard by putting the moves on a less than resistant duchess.The model is played by Fay Wray and the only way I can describe her is a Renaissance valley girl. But that's exactly what's got both Morgan and March real interested.The Affairs Of Cellini got four Oscar nominations including one for Best Actor for Frank Morgan. He lost to Clark Gable for It Happened One Night. Still Morgan is who you really remember from The Affairs Of Cellini.

Gregory La Cava is one of Hollywood's great directors, but this isn't up to his standard, despite a good cast. Though supposedly a comedy of manners, it's really a swashbuckler with hardly any swash. Morgan, a milquetoast king though he tries to act ferocious, overdoes his "well I don't...ahem...do you really...oh well, I..." routine. Fay Wray is best as an artist's model. She's sexy, yet so dumb she hasn't the imagination for romance. At one point, when the other characters are trying to get her to take part in an elaborate charade to make someone think that someone is not someone's lover, she says, "Oh, this is so silly." One of the few really funny lines, and, sadly, all too true.