Les perles de la couronne

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.

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.

With only two comments on IMDb (and only one external review) I feel duty bound to chime in with a third to say that this is one of the perpetually delightful gems of cinema. A unique film: playful, fascinating, extravagant, hilarious, touching. Guitry is written off time and again as a mere purveyor of filmed theater, and it's true that he made many films -- about half of his output -- from stage plays, often long after their original stage productions. But once he got the cinema bug (he resisted for a very long time, only starting make films in middle age) he found that he was given a wonderful new toy, and continued to play with it for the rest of his days. The enormous cast, the huge number of extravagant sets, the lavish costumes, and the vivacious imagination with which all these are employed make of this charming film something to be treasured. I've seen it now four times -- I try to save it for moments when I really want something wonderful to savor. And let me not forget the beautiful and equally lavish musical score of Jean Francaix. The DVD is quite good, but you will of course have to have a region-free player -- and if you don't, why not? Available at this time only as one of the eight discs in a magnificent box set (with many extras) from Gaumont France, "Sacha Guitry: L'age d'or 1936-1938." It's well worth the price.

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).

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!