The Black Rose

....was cast in Henri-Georges Clouzot's masterpiece "Manon" before her Hathaway film;her career was short-lived but she triumphed in the field of series-for -the-whole-family with her "Belle et Sebastien" saga -four or five seasons-starring her own son,Mehdi El Glaoui.

Her performance in "black rose" in not particularly memorable;neither is the film,which is far from Hathaway's great adventures films such as "lives of a Bengal lancer" or even "legend of the lost" .the desultory script which takes the audience from Norman England to China is never really exciting .Tyrone Power and Jack Hawkins are a good pairing (along Welles who does not seem to care about his character).Their situation in the court of the empress of China will remind some users of Kipling 's "the man who would be king" which John Huston transferred to the screen masterfully with M.Caine and S.Connery.(1975)

After finishing his run in Mister Roberts in London, Tyrone Power stuck around to film Thomas Costain's novel The Black Rose. Costain was a popular novelist of historical themes and high adventure. The latter is what The Black Rose has plenty of.

Power is the illegitimate son of a recently deceased lord who left him some money to the distress of his wife Mary Clare and son Laurence Harvey because in effect in the will he acknowledged the affair that produced Power. In addition Power is still possessing those old prejudices of the original Saxon inhabitants against the Norman conquerors. A lot of people are telling Power to get over it, but he won't.

In fact he takes off for adventure in the Far East with similarly minded Jack Hawkins who's most handy with an English longbow. A fact that impresses Mongol lord Orson Welles who gets Power and Hawkins into his service. Welles has intentions of conquering China, an ambitious task that has failed most in history.

The title refers to Cecile Aubry the French accented daughter of a Crusader who is in Welles's harem. But she likes what she sees in the two exiled Englishmen. She's supposed to be English and that might throw a few people, but one must remember England at the time occupied a good deal of what is France. I'm sure Costain better explained it in the novel.

Power is properly heroic, but also cynical at the same time. It takes a dose of Jack Hawkins's reawakened patriotism for Power to see where his duty lay.

The real historical characters of King Edward I and Roger Bacon appear in the story. Edward I nicknamed Longshanks is played by Michael Rennie and it's far more favorable and civilized picture of Edward than Patrick McGoohan did in Braveheart. Henry Oscar plays Roger Bacon who was Power's teacher at ancient Oxford and one of the most brilliant minds of his time.

Henry Hathaway one of the best action directors ever keeps the whole thing moving well. The book is a great deal more complex than what you see on the screen, it would probably make a good mini-series. The color cinematography is some of Jack Cardiff's best work.

For those like myself who like the romantic Tyrone Power, The Black Rose is a medieval tale of high adventure and romance and not to be missed by Power's still powerful legion of fans.

I know this was shown on Italian TV during my childhood but I'm not sure whether I had watched the film in its entirety - after this viewing, I certainly didn't recollect much of anything and, therefore, consider it as a first!

Anyway, I decided to catch up with it now as an accompaniment to star Tyrone Power's most popular vehicle - THE MARK OF ZORRO (1940). Unlike that one (shot in black-and-white on studio sets), however, this was splashed with color and had the benefit of location photography: still, it's a much inferior spectacle, and the main reason for this is that the plot itself singularly lacks excitement - despite being basically an amalgam of Ivanhoe (starting off in medieval England with our Saxon hero opposing the Norman rulers) and Marco Polo (he eventually travels to the Orient and brings back samples of their exotic heritage). Also, despite the imposing presence of Orson Welles as a fearsome but noble Mongol warrior, there's precious little action in this two-hour film (though it's never actually boring)!

Despite the Fox banner, this was a British-based production and, consequently, the supporting cast and technical credits are nothing to sneeze at - the former including such stalwarts as Jack Hawkins (an unlikely but amiable bowman and Power's sidekick), Michael Rennie, Finlay Currie (as Power's proud and cantankerous grandfather), Herbert Lom, James Robertson Justice and Laurence Harvey (impossibly young as a Norman prince), as well as Alfonso Bedoya (whose voice was allegedly dubbed by Peter Sellers!) and child actor Robert Blake; behind the camera were such talents as legendary cinematographer Jack Cardiff, composer Richard Addinsell and production designer Paul Sheriff. The weakest link in the film is clearly leading lady Cecile Aubry, who struggles too hard to be winsome but results only in being irritating most of the time (not surprisingly, her career wasn't a long-lasting one).

While certainly watchable and generally entertaining in itself, Power was better served by some of his other historical epics (among them the film that directly preceded it, PRINCE OF FOXES [1949], another - though more modest - collaboration with Orson Welles).

This is a feature film about which viewers cannot even begin to agree. Some believe it to be a major production with award-winning costumes, good actors, a vivacious leading lady, a clever story-line and colorful thirteenth-century adventures. Others deny all these judgments and assertions. The only thing that all its fans agree upon is that the movie was unusual, worth-making and worth discussing. The novel by Thomas B. Costain is clever and perhaps not-entirely-historical. It is a fictionalized biography and a recreation of an era that sets two Saxons against their Norman overlords at a time when this may have been an old-fashioned attitude; but this gives Walter of Gurnie an excuse to leave his homeland and his studies, with a companion, Tristram Griffin, master of the English longbow, to take service with Bayan of the Hundred Eyes, General to the Great Khan of China.. The other elements in the plot line are thus Bayan's inscrutable personality--he and Walter play chess and debate; Griffin's prowess with a weapon that astonishes the Easterners who see him employ it; and the two men's love for a disguised girl who is forced to flee and joins their caravan, she who is the titular "Black Rose" of the piece. The screenplay by adventure writer Talbot Jennings (developed from Costain's logical but slightly creaky novel) is perhaps a very good one; it is my assertion that with a bit more money and a better leading lady, the film might be more famous and even more appreciated. It deserves an updated remake, in my view. The director of the piece was veteran Henry Hathaway; he makes the events seem both realistic and important, never stooping to trickery to try to inject excitement at the points where none is indicated by the script. Richard Addinsell composed the music for the film, and William C. Andrews provided the art direction. The costume designs by Michael Whittaker I find to be quite serviceable and good for the period, but not extremely exciting. The cinematography by Jack Cardiff is as beautiful as it always is; the film looks as good as budgetary constraints permit in either B/W or color, which is quite a feat. it is played as an adventure; I believe it could be refashioned as a dramatic work; but what we have here is an engaging and rewarding script and production. Tyrone Power is a bit too-old for a student, but he is attractive and vivid in the lead. Jack Hawkins steals the film due to his charisma, energy and award-level interpretation of Tristram. Orson Welles is interesting and enigmatic as the general. As the Black Rose, Cecile Aubrey is adequate, often charming and able to get the basics of her very youthful part across but not much more. Michael Rennie, Finlay Currie. Herbert Lom, Mary Clare, Henry Oscar as Roger Bacon and Laurence Harvey are also featured. I like the film, and have good memories of reading the novel and seeing it years ago. It holds up well, due to its solid construction; but I yearn to remake it as a drama worthy of the very-interesting story-line even moreso. Watch for the great archery contest--surely the visual highlight of this adventure production.

One of those rare adventure films where the villain is nearly as admirable a character as the hero. Perhaps only Orson Wells could pull that off. In fact, the dynamic formula of Welles' villainy played against the shadowed virtues of Tyrone Power are here-in reminiscent of that same combination in another rarely seen gem, Prince of Foxes. A good film library should contain them both. I don't think either of them are actually available commercially. Life can be so cruel.