Dangerous Exile

Duke Phillipe De Beauvais, (Louis Jourdan) flies in a balloon along with a ten year old Louis XVII Richard DE Beauvais ,( Richard O'Sullivan) from Paris and the balloon became damaged and landed in Wales. Virginia Trail, (Belinda Lee) finds the ten year old and befriends him and brings the boy to her aunts home. Louis XVII is separated from his father Duke Phillipe who helped his son escape from being killed, and who was tortured in a prison. Louis XVII has constant nightmares from all the punishment he endured while in prison and he willingly tells his story to Virginia and Louis XVII at the age of 10 tells Virginia that he wants to marry her and will she wait for him to grow up, Virginia is 2l and it was quite a funny scene in this film. This film dealt completely with hiding this ten year old King and people trying to kill him.

While I love Louis Jourdan, it doesn't mean I have to be crazy about all his films, and I couldn't work up much enthusiasm for this one.

Based on a book about the supposed survival of Louis XVII, it just felt bland and not very interesting, and that kid king in exile began getting on my nerves with his constant wistful whining about wanting to stay there forever, never wanting to be king, then acting out a silly abdication parody with his self-appointed guardian (played by Belinda Lee, who's also Louis Jourdan's love interest), talking about his supposedly prophetic dreams, and making me sympathize with all those Jacobins who wanted to cut off his head!

Jourdan actually sacrificed his own son for this pathetic child??? That really made me HATE him (despite his sexy good looks)!

The only interesting part to this story was the treacherous servants, with the guy being dumb enough to trust his scheming, mercenary girlfriend.

Bit of a time waster, so skip this one gladly.

Typical 50s sword and cape film with slew of supporting British and French actors. Pity there isn't a single Welsh one given that part of the action is supposed to take place in Wales. The "Welsh" contingent have a bash at an accent but truth to tell anyone who has ever been to Wales would not be convinced. Finlay Currie for instance was a well known SCOTTISH actor with an accent to match has a go at mangling a Welsh one. But then have you ever seen "How Green was my Valley", a good novel Hollywoodenized?

Well, despite the fact the camera crew never went to Wales, the actors do what they can to move things along (the director could have helped more). The music is clunky and helps even less.

But, hey, the leads are all good looking or, when given some freedom like the "grande dame" Martini Hunt, manage to raise a smile.

So suspend your disbelief - as you have to do to many present-day films - and don't expect any explosions or leaps from tall buildings and settle down in a comfortable sofa.

'King Reluctant', the novel by Vaughan Wilkins, is a fanciful tale based upon the legend that Louis Charles, the rightful heir to the throne following the public execution of his father Louis XVI, had escaped his captors whereas it has long been established that the unfortunate boy had been cruelly treated by his guards and died from tuberculosis at the age of ten.

This film adaptation is frankly more hysterical than historical which is a great pity as the art direction of Jack Maxted and cinematography by Geoffrey Unsworth ensure that it looks simply splendid. The whole enterprise has been scuppered alas by the stolid, tepid and unimaginative direction of Brian Desmond Hurst who has done his actors no favours whatsoever. Played against the backdrop of the French Revolution, what should have been a thrilling adventure has become a non-event thanks to this director's total lack of flair for this sort of material whilst the drama is further weakened by some decidedly dodgy lip-syncing.

This belongs to the seemingly endless list of films that fall into the 'what might have been' category.

This film is from the period when John Davis was in control of the Rank Organisation,so that films like this result.The sequel could have been tested little princess not being killed in the tower.There is some good colour cinematography.This particularly benefits BeLinda Lee and her heaving bosom.Poor history,bad film making.