Les amours de Cellini

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!

Because this movie starred Fredric March, I was sure to see it. However, after seeing it, I can't exactly say it's a must-see film...or that I even liked it. It's not that it's a bad movie, but it's not all that great, either.

March plays the title character--a man who was a goldsmith for the Medicis in Renaissance Italy. Through much of the film, Cellini spends his time chasing women and killing people in sword fights (wow...Freud would have had a field day if he'd ever met a guy like this). It's all very well acted yet stilted because it's essentially a costume drama--the sort of films I don't particularly like--though I am a huge fan of classic Hollywood. My problem with this film and others like it is that so much energy and time and money is spend on sets and costumes that the rest of the film usually suffers. The only real plus for the film is the nice and jovial performance by Frank Morgan--he was a lot of fun and quite in his element. Otherwise, it's just another costumer combined with a light comedic/romantic touch--the sort of film Errol Flynn or John Barrymore (during the silent era) would have excelled at if they'd been given such a role.

As for me, I never got into the film very much as it seemed like a silly sort of trifle of a film, but also could see it was a quality production. Perhaps there were just too many knowing glances between Constance Bennett and March to make this a particularly rewarding film to watch.

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.

This period drama-comedy is a treat to watch. It has a quite serious plot but at the same time it makes it more flexible to make people laugh, this shows a script well adapted to the screen. A good decision that is short because it juices everything and gets to the point right away.

The performances are brilliant from first to last: Fredric March as Cellini, a slick opportunistic assassin who manages to escape his punishment, falls in love with the Duchess of Florence and creates trouble in the palace. A very seductive and sexy performance as well as good.

Constance Bennett as the Duchess of Florence, an intelligent and empowered woman beyond stepping into the seduction of Cellini. Brilliant performance and a shame the absence of her nomination at the Oscars.

Frank Morgan earned him his first Oscar nomination for the role of the Duke of Florence, a noble fool who plays to give orders. He is the comedy of the film.

Fay Wray as an ordinary village girl, who arrives at the palace by coincidence and begins to take an interest in that lifestyle.

Enjoyable from start to finish, great production work and from Gregory La Cava.

Stumbling across a neat little 80-minute gem like 1934's The Affairs of Cellini is reason enough to lease satellite TV (or a really good cable service, a contradiction in terms if ever there was one). Viewing it almost nearly 70 years after its premiere allows even the neophyte cineaste a neat precis of the progress (or lack of same) that film has made since then, plus primers in ace character acting and deft characterization by the writers.

The film centers on 16th-century Florence, a hotbed of wealth and intrigue run by a family you might of heard of (the Medicis), and one of its leading artisans, the goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini. Cellini (about whom Hector Berlioz wrote an opera and numerous poems and stories have been penned) is sort of a hybrid of Robin Hood and the Scarlet Pimpernel, with a dash of Don Juan thrown in for fun. Played by the very young, unabashedly gorgeous and surprisingly athletic Fredric March (seen many years later in such classics as Inherit the Wind, The Bridges at Toko-Ri and The Best Years of Our Lives), Cellini's a stiffnecked anti-aristocrat that the Duke of Florence (played hilariously by The Wizard of Oz himself, Frank Morgan) and his lethal-seductress wife (Fox's big star of the mid-'30s, Constance Bennett) can't seem to do without, so skilled at goldsmithing and seduction is he.

Toss in Fay Wray (the year after making Kong go ape), Fox stalwart Louis Calhern in the Basil Rathbone role and the VERY young Lucille Ball in a supporting role, oodles of classic B&W cinematography, snappy directorial pace (by Fox veteran Gregory La Cava) and quasi-operatic sets and decoration, and you've got the kind of lunchtime matinee that 24-hour classic movie channels like Turner Classic and Fox Movies (where this can be seen at least twice a month) were meant to provide.