Scaramouche

I recently saw this movie again on cable - it is a wonderful mixture of period romantic adventure with examples of great comedia del'arte and... especially... the best fencing scenes ever put on film. Both Stewart Granger and Mel Ferrer were excellent swordsmen and their final confrontation is a brilliant tour de force. Watch it just for this sequence - remember it was made in 1953 and is still highly enjoyable.

Spectacular swordplay in musical style in this superior version of the classic Rafael Sabatini novel . M-G-M presents Sabatini' exciting story of love and adventure . The picture contains overwhelming action , intrigue , romantic adventure , mayhem and a lot of fencing . For the second time is adapted in the greatest Hollywood splendor , the complete romance , the historical characters, the full novel just as Rafael Sabatini write it ; it stars Stewart Granger as the rake young who turns revenger when his best friend is killed and he , subsequently , becomes the role Scaramouche and finally faces off his deadly enemy , featuring a top-notch seven-and-a-half minute sword battle . This delightful adaptation contains an awesome casting and lavish production shot in Metro Goldwyn Studios make for a fairly amusement swashbuckling . This is the classic version of the Sabatini's novel with a handsome Stewart Granger in a brave role as a young and handsome nobleman , a dashing , audacious lover . The film is well set in the days of the French revolution and it starts with the youngster Andre Moreau (Stewart Granger , this is one of Granger's best movies at MGM) , a bastard nobleman searching for his family . Moreau , then , carries out a relentless revenge to avenge the death of a friend . As he joins a theatre troupe , being disguised as Scaramouche , there he meets Aline (Eleanor Parker , very well cast) , and forms an interest in her . Meanwhile , aristocrat marquis Noel (Mel Ferrer) is ordered by the French queen (Nina Foch) to seek the hand of a young ingenue , Aline (Janet Leigh) , in marriage . Later on , Andre becomes a politician at National Assembly to protect the third estate from mean aristocracy and contra-revolutionaries . After that , Andre spends his days learning how to handle a sword , thanks to a master swordsman .

This is a slight and hugely budgeted retelling about the durable Sabatini's novel with all-star-cast . It is packed with comedy , derring-do , intrigue , a triangular love story , action , drama and moving as well as dazzling swordplay between Granger and Ferrer . Entertaining swashbuckling with lavish production by Carey Wilson , glamorous gowns and luxurious sets by Oscar winning Cedric Gibbons and Hans Peters . The climax is one of the most rousing and longest duel scenes ever shot , that ranges throughout the theater, from the balcony boxes , to the lobby, through the main seats, backstage and finally on the stage itself . It bettered the one Stewart Granger was to have with with James Mason in another remake , The prisoner of Zenda . During the filming of the incredible fencing , Granger narrowly missed serious injury to his groin when he landed astride the next row of chairs, and filming had to be halted temporarily . However , in the original novel by Sabatini , the climactic duel occurred outdoors . The main cast is frankly well . Nice acting by Stewart Granger as Andre-Louis Moreau , a nobleman bastard become an actor in a Commedia troupe and vowing to avenge his friend ; being his nemesis , Mel Ferrer , as Noel De Maynes , a marquis in love with two women : the queen , Marie Antoinette , well played by Nina Foch , and the gorgeous aristocrat Janet Leigh . And enjoyable secondary cast , as the marvelous main actors are completed by a stellar cast full of classical and veteran players as Henry Wilcoxon , Nina Foch , Richard Anderson , Robert Coote , Lewis Stone , John Dehner and John Litel .

It displays an evocative and romantic musical score by Victor Young . Lush production design is wonderfully reflected on the luxurious interiors and exteriors filmed at Hollywood . Colorful cinematography in brilliant Technicolor by Charles Rosher . The motion picture was compellingly directed by George Sidney . Sidney was a good Hollywood filmmaker , becoming MGM's most successful director in the 1940's . George was an expert in big budget musicals , but also handled rollicking swashbucklers like The three musketeers (1948) that he formerly made in similar style and this Scaramouche (1952) . Some of his biggest hits were movie versions of successful Broadway plays , like Annie get your gun (1950) and Magnolia (1951) . After leaving MGM in 1955, Sidney went over to Columbia under a seven-year contract and had one more major hit with Pal Joey (1957), made under the banner of his own production company and after directing other successes . Scaramouche rating : Better than average . It is a very good film thanks to fabulous scenarios , luxurious exteriors and interiors , glamorous gowns and being lavishly financed by MGM .

This classy story was subsequently remade on several versions , firstly take on this classic is the following : Scaramouche (1923) by Rex Ingram with Ramon Novarro , Alice Terry , Lloyd Ingraham and Lewis Stone who played the 'heavy' - the Marquis de la Tour d'Azyr - in this old retelling and he came back to play the elderly character of "Georges de Valmorin" in this new version Scaramouche (1952) . And European version titled The mask of Scaramouche (1963) by Antonio Isasi Isasmendi with Gerard Barray , Michelle Girardon , Gian Maria Canale and Alberto De Mendoza . Finally , Adventures and lovers of Scaramouche (1970) by Enzo G Castelli with Michael Sarrazin , Úrsula Andress , Sal Borghese , Aldo Maccione and Michael Forest .

Stewart Granger at his prettiest. Above average film and story. However the final dueling scene maybe just about the very best of its kind. Worth sitting thru the entire film for the fantastic duel between Granger and Mel Ferrer

As has been commented by the other two people, the final sword fight makes the movie (although it is not the only reason to watch). It runs non-stop for over 7 minutes. One interesting point is that aside from the leap from the staircase to the floor below, Granger did all of his own stunts in the sequence (including swinging from the stage into the opera box and dangling over the audience early in the fight). The only fight that comes anywhere near it is the one between Danny Kaye and Basel Rathbone in "Court Jester".

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.