Quentin Durward

Anyone looking for insightful commentary on the human condition in a movie should avoid "Quentin Durward." Robert Taylor plays Durward, a poor knight out of place in his time, as he acknowledges to his uncle at the movie's start. Once the story preliminaries are over, Taylor goes on his mission to France, where everyone is against him, including Count de la Mark, the Beast of the Ardennes.

"Quentin Durward" has great castle background shots, great photography and pretty good action. Robert Morley's well fed appearance softens his role, a king who cheerfully sells everyone out, causing death and terror. In "Quentin Durward", life is cheap and death often comes in a grim manner. Without giving away the plot, there are a lot of peripheral characters who get messed up along the way. There are no big scale castle sieges like Ivanhoe, just the aftermath after de la Mark takes over the castle of the Bishop of Liege. The costumed characters in "Quentin Durward" have real problems, such as Kay Kendall's character, who is being forced into a marriage she doesn't want. Money, land and power are the driving forces of the bad guys (which would include de la Mark, Morley's Louis XI and even Durward's uncle).

In 1955, if MGM made a movie about crooked real estate speculators trying to rob a young woman of her inheritance, no one would pay to see the movie. Instead, MGM brings out the costumes, the great production values and a script tailored for Robert Taylor, including some snippy remarks, set in 15th century France.

Moviegoers in 1955 waiting for Robert Taylor to appear in his next MGM costume action movie were like the character in "Waiting for Godot." "Quentin Durward" was the end of a line of historical movies that MGM started 30 years earlier, with "Ben-Hur."

Mid-point in his career Robert Taylor was given Quo Vadis and was such a success in it that MGM then gave him Ivanhoe and Knights of the Round Table and finally Quentin Durward. Taylor did not like these films, he referred to them as his "iron jockstrap roles." He much preferred westerns and modern pictures. But he went with the flow so they say.

The stream flowed well for him in Quentin Durward. What Walter Scott was trying to do in the novel and succeeds on the screen is juxtapose the lives of noble knight Quentin Durward and the scheming spider king Louis XI of France played superbly by Robert Morley. Louis XI is modern man, stripped of all pretenses, surviving on his wits. Durward is a figure from antiquity even in the 15th century.

Louis XI is one of the most fascinating monarchs in history and we've seen him as a supporting character both in If I Were King and in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He was a guy who if one scheme didn't work, he had a backup plan, in fact about 5 or 6 backups. Most of us are lucky if we have 2 in any situation. But he had to rule that way. When he took the throne of France in 1461 they had ended the Hundred Years War and France was a devastated country. He couldn't afford to be starting any wars or he wouldn't have a country left. He had to rule by wile and stratagem and he succeeded. Too bad Robert Morley didn't make a film just about Louis XI. Great story, hope someone does it some day.

One of the most exciting action sequences in film history is done here with Quentin Durward battling the villainous Walter DeLa Marck in a burning bell tower while they are both swinging on ropes holding bell clappers. You should see the film for that alone.

Richard Thorpe managed a few amusing moments in "The Adventures of Quentin Durward" which has a trapped Kay Kendall, whose only hard way to escape was to get rid from the evil black villain William De La Marck (Ducan Lamont).

Robert Taylor (Quentin Durward) engaged with De La Marck a rare but extremely exciting duel to-the-death with ax and dagger in the burning bell tower, swinging on the bell ropes in a rhythmic motion, getting from side to side with the sound of the ringing bells, until the destruction of the vile Count...

The best part of the film is the performance of the delicious heroine, Kay Kendall, 'one of the Cinema's few outstanding Comediennes,'whose beauty and artistic talent flourished the story, set in the 15th-Century France...

Kay Kendall (1926-59) went away much too young of leukemia...

Kay performed the maiden in distress, the medieval heroine fitting well into a motion picture which caught beautifully Scott's novel... The plot was simple: an elderly English Lord (Ernest Thesiger) sends his nephew (Robert Taylor) to seek in marriage a French Lady (Kay Kendall) on his behalf... He falls in love with her himself..

Sir Walter Scott wrote the novel in 1823... His 'Ivanhoe, 'The Talisman' and 'Rob Roy' have received most attention from filmmakers...

Another quality of "The Adventures of Quentin Durward" is the good acting of Robert Morley as the cunning, outrageous, very winding King, a characterization so different to his great performance as the weak-minded Louis XVI in "Marie-Antoinette" opposite Norma Shearer... This delightful British actor played excellent supporting roles in good-humored or pretentious roles...

Robert Taylor was the perfect cavalier, the man of word and sword, the romantic adventurer who appeared to relieve a charming Lady..

For a French viewer,it is always much fun to see how Hollywood treats our history.For sure,Louis the Eleventh would be amazed if he saw the Château de Chambord in his kingdom whereas this castle (400 chimneys)was built more than thirty years after his death.But on the other hand his castle of Plessis -Lès-Tours (Lès doesn't mean 'the' but "next to" ) was his favorite residence:it's here that he kept his Fillettes (=girlies) where he imprisoned his enemies.Unfortunately these cages do not appear in the movie.

However,Hollywood shows the historical figures as French conventions do in cinema:Robert Morley's shrewd smart king and Charles Le Téméraire (Charles the Bold)are depicted in the same way as in "Le Miracle Des Loups" a French classic swashbuckler which was filmed twice ,the first version by Raymond Bernard in the silent age.

"Quentin Durward" is entertaining stuff,suitable for the whole family but it is not as exciting as "Knights of the Round Table "-which featured a more beautiful leading lady in the shape of Ava Gardner- or mainly "the prisoner of Zenda" ,my favorite Thorpe movie.Besides,the part of the villain is too underwritten (remember James Mason in "Zenda").Best moment:the duel among the bells .

A peripheral pleasure was the sight of those great English character actors, the backbone of so many heroic films. Alec Clunes for example, whose son, Martin, is such a favourite today. Wilfred Hyde White, usually an elegant toff, was here a barber with a delightful wig shaving Robert Morley. He of course was in danger of stealing the show, a villain with a winning smile and wonderful accent. I relished the sight of a Kay Kendall in what appeared to be a white nightdress; but even more more striking was the speed with which she added a robe, whilst running round the castle with Taylor. We so easily take the music for granted; here it was expertly matched to the action, wonderfully orchestrated and brilliantly played and conducted - but by whom? The composer Bronislaw Kaper? Was it recorded in London or Hollywood? The professional skill that these musicians displayed deserves far more attention. Too often today the score is synthesised, or inanely repetitious regardless of the scene and the action.