Under the Red Robe

Victor Sjostrom's final directorial effort is made in England by the resourceful silent film taskmaster, and he is aided by a competent cast, magnificent score (Arthur Benjamin) and a clever scenario (Arthur Wimperis) in this engrossing historic drama which deals with the efforts of Cardinal Richelieu (Raymond Massey) to quell rebellious Huguenots in 17th century southeastern France. To achieve his purposes, Richelieu employs the services of Gil de Berault (Conrad Veidt), a dashing swordsman, to serve as a spy for Catholic King Louis XIII, assigning the duellist to travel to Foix in order to infiltrate the castle of the Huguenot leader, the Duke of Foix, wherein Berault falls in love with Lady Marguerite (Annabella), the Duke's sister, and where many adventures take place during the course of this romantic, witty and exciting film.

Two of the greatest film villains act together in this lavish costume drama of the 17th century, Raymond Massey as Cardinal Richelieu and Conrad Veidt as his spy and traitor. They are no less villains here although they both survive, and Conrad Veidt is so thoroughly groomed in as a villain in film history that he just can't be taken seriously as a victor of the happy end. The film is not original, the script is very ordinary Hollywood history stuff spinning yarns on legends, and not even the heroine is very beautiful. It was films such as these that the great silent film director Victor Sjöström of Sweden was given to make in Hollywood, lacking all his original ingenuity and just showing off Hollywood in stale artificiality of cramped efforts at romantic intrigue and solemn scenery of elaborate sumptuousness. This was his last film, he then went home to Sweden to work occasionally with Ingmar Bergman, while Raymond Massey and Conrad Veidt both went on as successful scoundrels in Hollywood, Conrad Veidt though just for a few years more, since he died far too young at only 50. The film is not bad, it's a valid costume drama with plenty of intrigue, but it has no soul of originality, only superficiality.

This 1937 film was the third version of a rather creaky Victorian era play Under The Red Robe written by Edward E. Rose and debuting on Broadway in 1896. This British production is the only sound version and given the material is rather arcane we're not likely to see another version made.

The Red Robe of the title refers to the vestments of Cardinal Richelieu, minister to King Louis XIII in 17th century France and first statesman of Europe. The man who said on his deathbed that he had no enemies save those of the state is played with a combination of subtlety and fanaticism by Raymond Massey, two qualities normally not compatible.

Massey has a mission and it requires a guy who can think fast on his feet and be both a courtier and a duelist. He's got such a man in Conrad Veidt. But Veidt is under a death sentence for violating the Cardinal's edict against dueling.

But if Veidt brings in the leader of the Huguenot Protestants who hops back and forth over the Pyrenees to Spain stirring up revolt, he can get the sentence commuted. To aid and assist Veidt, Massey assigns his man Romney Brent.

One small complication Veidt falls for Annabella whom he thinks is the Countess. A real mess all around.

The cast does well by the material, but it's ancient and dated and some of the motivations are a bit hard to follow. The play was written in a far more romantic era and was old fashioned when it got to the screen in 1937 let alone seeing it now.

But as a curiosity it might be worth a look.

With the aid of the Swedish Film Institute, a collection of Victor Sjöström's movies will "tour" around the world to various film clubs and like so I have had the pleasure of watching most of the movies he directed. Sadly though, Sjöström's final effort proves to be the most disappointing. Conrad Veidt is without a doubt less dashing than Errol Flynn playing a debonair French swordsman - with a German accent.

He's not the only one though with an accent, Annabella with a thick French one, her sister the countess speaks the Queen's English and the men at the inn sounds like peasants from the English countryside. It is all rather confusing.

I don't know why Sjöström accepted the direct this movie, perhaps he was eager to direct again but too many constraints were put on him. The end result looks like any movie that includes musketeers or cardinal Richeliu.

I say "unearthed" because the film seems to have been buried -- the condition of the print is pretty bad, and the soundtrack is so worn that half the subtitles say, "Inaudible". Apparently this is an orphaned film, in the public domain, without a decent print to remaster. Considering that many fine films have disappeared, we are lucky that this one survived at all. Lucky, because we see here what made this movie's era "Golden". Even routine costume dramas/comedies such as this one were blessed with fine production values, interesting scripts, and great directors and actors.

You can't have everything, and I wanted to see more of the deliciously ruthless Raymond Massey, who got second billing as Cardinal Richelieu but only a few minutes of screen time. A great discovery for me was Romney Brent. I looked him up, and most of his career was on the stage, so to see this delightful character player on the screen is a real treat. Annabella's heavy accent is hard to decipher, but she's so lovely, who cares, especially when she's framed by Victor Sjöstrōm, who brought us Garbo.

The sets are impressive, and the story is an interesting piece of historical fiction. There really is a Château Foix (subtitles call it "Fiox"), which did have a connection to Richelieu. If you're a movie lover, then look past the poor print and be grateful for this unearthed gem.