Frenchman's Creek

The absolutely gorgeous color cinematography and the Academy Award winning sets are the main reason that you should Frenchman's Creek today. The players definitely take second place to those outstanding features.

The plot at least as it has been altered by the Code is handled with as much skill as the cast can muster covering up some glaring holes. Joan Fontaine is one unhappily married lady of the manor with two small children and a husband who seems more intent on advancing his career in Restoration Great Britain than in her. As was the fashion of that bawdy era husband Ralph Forbes even encourages his wife to pay attention to the courting of his rakish friend Basil Rathbone to Fontaine. When at court many men even pimped their wives for Charles II, this behavior in that era isn't surprising.

Well Fontaine can't stand Rathbone so she and the kids take off for the summer place on the Cornwall coast. There's a servant there with a French accent, Cecil Kellaway and later she learns it's been inhabited discreetly by French pirate Arturo De Cordova. He's quite the charmer, if the film were done at Warner Brothers Errol Flynn would have had the part.

Joan and Arturo as a couple look like they come right out of one of those romance novels. She even takes up the cutlass with him and she proves to be every bit the swordsman he is.

The title of the film comes from a hidden cove near Fontaine's manor where De Cordova's ship lays anchor.

Other more recent versions of the story by Daphne Du Maurier have been made that are closer to the original. I can't reveal it, but the ending makes absolutely no sense at all. And it is NOT as Du Maurier wrote it originally.

Maybe that was part of the reason that Mexican film idol Arturo De Cordova never got stardom north of the border. He appeared in this film, in a supporting role in For Whom the Bell Tolls and another Paramount feature and then went back to Mexico where he was a leading figure in Latino cinema for the next quarter of a century. De Cordova reminds me a lot of his fellow countryman, Gilbert Roland.

Rathbone is a nasty villain and there's also a nice performance by Nigel Bruce as a fatheaded earl who is a Cornwall neighbor. It's the only time that Basil and Nigel did a film together not as Holmes and Watson.

Mitchell Leisen directed this film and did a good job given the Code restrictions he operated under. Leisen early in his career worked on several Cecil B. DeMille films and his photography and sets definitely have a DeMille look to them.

If you like romantic tales, despite the problems, Frenchman's Creek is one for you.

In examining this well-done film,I find myself in disagreement with one of the other critics,in terms of regarding the performances of some of the supporting players.Where do we start?

1)Nigel Bruce is doing his usual blundering,obtuse,blithering,pompous oaf,as we have seen in numerous other films.In this picture,however,his character is not as benign as we have witnessed elsewhere.

2.)Cecil Kellaway,as William,is doing a masterpiece.His character is sly,wise,verbally adroit,socially adept,sensitive,and intuitive.This is the sort of fellow we would wish to have as the major-domo,or butler.

3.)Forbes,as Harry,does well in what happens to be an extremely thankless role.Dona's husband is a clod and a buffoon.He is a self-centered,selfish,immature man,who married for all of the wrong reasons(although the right ones for that period.)He wanted to have a beautiful wife,who would provide him with sexual companionship,company,and would handle all of the business aspects while he could go out with his pals and have a good time.He's not only NOT interested in handling his end of the relationship,but he puts her in the way of Lord Rockingham,even though he knows that she finds his attentions repugnant.it's not easy to do this kind of part,but he does carry it off.

I've never seen this fanciful costumer in a theater but a TV broadcast, quite a few years ago, fairly leapt from the screen - the three-strip Technicolor had transferred to video as if it were a pristine print. Paramount obviously spared no expense on this one and, despite some minor objections, I recall being thoroughly entertained by it, especially that absolutely savage battle-to-the-death between Basil Rathbone's quintessentially dastardly villain and a desperately determined Joan Fontaine.

Some years back I somewhere read that, while waiting in full makeup and costumes for the lighting technicians to work their magic, Miss Fontaine rather scathingly queried her costar, Arturo de Cordova, why he was pursuing a career as an actor, apparently with the implication that it was an occupation unworthy of a man. If that's the kind of treatment he had to undergo at the hands of a Hollywood leading lady, one can confidently guess that his much greater success in Latin American cinema left him with few regrets that his Hollywood sojourn never amounted to much.

My favorite pirate film was the "Black Swan" (and I didn't hate "Cutthroat Island", either!), but this is a close second even though there is less sea action and it's more ABOUT a pirate. The sets and acting are wonderful; the use of color is magnificent. This is a very enjoyable film with the gorgeous Joan Fonatine (Olivia deHavilland's estranged sister) acting up a storm and at her peak of pulchritude, and the magnificent Basil Rathbone demonstrating his soaring acting talent. The hilight of the film for me was one of the best fight scenes ever filmed - an all-out battle-to-the-death between Rathbone - and Fontaine!! A classic!

This film was shot in Mendocino County and should be in the list of films shot in that area. The creek itself is the Albion River. The boat used in the film was left in the river and was resting on the bottom when I saw it and boarded it in 1944 or 5. My grandparents had an orchard and farm outside the community of Albion. A couple of the crew members stayed at their place when the film was being shot. There were some other locations on the coast that were used as well. The residence was removed and just the leveled field it was situated on and the plants the studio planted to surround the site remained for many years after. This location was outside of Albion near dark Gulch and was just west of highway 1 that runs along the coast in Mendocino and adjacent counties as far south as San Simeon. I have never seen the complete film, so would not to vote on it at this time.