Die Perlen der Krone

Theatrical maestro Sacha Guitry goes through various wigs and false beards in this ornate romp through three languages and several centuries. Among the cameos by fellow theatrical luminaries Arletty wearing body makeup and very little else as the Queen of Abyssinia may offend modern 'Woke' sensibilities but she certainly keeps you awake!

The best of Guitry's historical costumed romps, this one has a great deal of verve and mischief in its favor, all in the service of a shaggy dog story about a set of pearls destined to find their way onto the crown of England, and the hunting down of the three that didn't. The story takes in Henry VIII, Napoleon and Queen Victoria along the way and ends up a sort of comedic Maltese Falcon.

The constant use of English, Italian and French languages throughout is unusual and perhaps even unique. It does slow the pace down having the same line said 3 times throughout, but, like the rest of the film, it's all done in such a spirit of playful fun it somehow works.

A delight! This is kind of the film I was hoping to see last year when I watched Guitry's Story of a Cheat, which I had heard about for years prior to its becoming available. I liked that film quite a bit, but there was a tinge of disappointment in that it didn't live up to my expectations. The Pearls of the Crown, though, was just brilliant. Guitry and his wife Jacqueline Delubac play multiple roles throughout a 400 year timespan. In the present they play a historian and his wife. Guitry is telling Delubac the story of the pearls in the crown of England. These pearls came from Mary Queen of Scots' necklace, which in turn came from a wedding gift to Catherine de Medici from the Pope. Guitry tells the story of the pearls' origin, and also of their theft the night Mary Stuart was executed. The four pearls that were recovered from the thieves went into the crown, and the three others were never found. Soon Guitry teams up with British and Italian counterparts and the three of them set out on a mission to find the remaining three pearls. This film moves back and forth through time with the grace of a ballerina. Arletty appears in one of the more outrageous bits of the film, as an Abyssinian queen (and, yes, she plays it in blackface).

This unusual tri-lingual (French, English, Italien) film traces the history of seven pearls acquired at the behest of Pope Clement who gave them to Catherine d'Medici. The pearls are passed down to Mary, Queen of Scots. At the time of Mary's execution the pearls are stolen and separated. Four of them become part of the crown of England. The characters then try to discover what happened to the other three pearls.

It is a delightful film with clever, amusing dialogue. At one point a character is instructed to only speak using adverbs. She does so in answering a string of questions. It is a marvelous scene. Anyone who gets a chance to see this film should do so.

Funny and very witty comedy by Sacha Guitry. Like almost all of his works, it is very episodic, with characters who rarely appear for more than 5 minutes and who ingeniously plays with the relationship between the image and the everlasting voice-over.

In this case, the story of a seven-pearl necklace with an impressive history from the Renaissance to the present day is used by Guitry to show his ingenuity in the form of a history lesson, full of symmetries, repetitions and ingenious twists.

The cast, as always, is impressive, with the best of French cinema and theater from thirty years of French culture: Cecile Sorel, Coquelin, Raimu, Arletty, Barrault, Moreno....as well as the director himself and his own wife, the very elegant Jacqueline Delubac, like the married couple who decide to follow the trail of those historical pearls.

The film is an intelligent entertainment that does not tire despite its episodic character, thanks to the director's continued inventiveness. Some basic knowledge in history helps.