Voltaire

When I was little I didn't care for Arliss' movies, since there was no action and he wasn't funny. My parents would watch him and marvel at his movies and his acting skills, all of which were lost on me. Now I am grown up and I appreciate him more than I could ever have imagined. He is the consummate actor who got to Hollywood almost too late - he was very old, even his early pictures - and must have been a treat to watch on the stage, which was his first home. Now I watch all his facial expressions, hand movements, body language and vocal inflection and I am glad we can get to see and hear this top rate actor while he was still able to act. "Voltaire" is a good vehicle for him, the story is fine. A good part of it is probably fiction. Just enjoy him and marvel at his skill.

The wigs in this film are an excellent example of "period" hairstyling, with a 1920s/1930s twist.

As with any period piece, the hairdressers working at the time of production must resist the urge to allow contemporary styling methods interfere with being true to the period they are representing. Inevitably, a hybrid of period styling with elements of the modern era is usually the end result.

This is the case for some of the looks in this fantastic adventure through Louis XIV France - in fact there are a few scenes with Voltaire desperately trying to choose a wig before his guests come in.

Regardless of not every piece being perfectly period styled, the wigs in this film are magnificent and an endless source of wonder for a veteran stylist like myself.

Most people assume that George Arliss was involved in motion pictures for only about a decade, from his performance in DISRAELI (1929) to his retirement after the failure of OLD ENGLISH in 1938. In actuality, he had made several of his sound films as silent films, in particular DISRAELI (originally made as a silent in 1921) and THE GREEN GODDESS. A few of his sound movies could not have been made as silents - THE MAN WHO PLAYED GOD requires sound, because Arliss's pianist is losing his hearing after an explosion. A silent movie would have made this loss of a vital sense meaningless.

It has to be admitted that he was typecast a little after his Oscar winner in 1929. He became the actor who portrayed "great men" of history (preferably English, but not necessarily so). So he played Disraeli snatching the Suez Canal, the Duke of Wellington watching helplessly as his worthy old opponent (Marshall Ney) is judicially murdered by the restored Bourbon Monarchy, Cardinal Richelieu fighting court intrigue and making 17th Century France the center of Europe, Meyer and Nathaniel Rothschild building history's greatest private banking empire (and using their power to force Jewish Emancipation on Europe), and Alexander Hamilton giving America it's stable economic force (while defending his reputation against the scandal of the Mrs. Reynolds Affair). People tend to forget his performance as Bette Davis's lover and protector in THE MAN WHO PLAYED GOD, or the Rajah of Ruhk in THE GREEN GODDESS or the proud old New England aristocrat in THE LAST GENTLEMAN. He did portray fictional roles as well as historical ones.

Voltaire (1933) is a lesser-recalled historical film. Arliss is the wit and writer and critic of the ancien regime, involved in trying to rehabilitate the name of an executed criminal: Jean Calas. This was an actual tragedy of the reign of Louis XV in 1764. Calas, a wealthy French merchant, was a Protestant. His son, an unstable youth, had been considering converting to Catholicism. One day the young man was found dead by hanging in a room in his father's home. The chances are pretty good that young Calas committed suicide, but in that period such tragedies were hushed up - due to their nature suggesting hidden weaknesses in the families of the deceased. Calas Sr. made the mistake of trying to cover-up the suicide. When the death became known, the authorities made the erroneous jump of thinking Calas Sr. killed his son to prevent the young man from becoming a Catholic. The elder Calas was arrested, tortured, given a rapid trial, convicted, and executed. His family were ruined by the tragedy. Voltaire, in real life, examined the entire affair and showed the shallow guesswork and investigation of the facts that led to a judicial murder. Although the government was unhappy to be shown to be in the wrong, they decided to agree to posthumously rehabilitate Calas Sr.'s memory. The family was also given some money as compensation (though not much).

The screenplay is using Voltaire's fight for Calas as the center of the drama, pitting Arliss against King Louis (Reginald Owen) and his chief minister Count de Jarnac (Alan Mowbray). Actually Mowbray's character is fictional, as no such chief minister existed in France in 1764 with that name or title. Much of the screenplay is fanciful, but does show some interesting historical images: Voltaire writing a play set in the ancient mideast (based on the Calas tragedy) and producing it to be shown at Versailles before the court (this was actually done by Voltaire, Moliere, Racine, Corneille, and Beaumarchaise through the reigns of Louis XIV, XV, and XVI). Also of interest is Voltaire shown getting correspondence from Frederic the Great of Prussia (they did correspond frequently - ironically they were friendlier when writing to each other than when Voltaire spent three years in Prussia in the early 1750s). Reading Frederic's letters by a fireplace, Voltaire also is reading the monarch's poetic effusions, which Voltaire must doctor up. Arliss is funny at this point, reading bathetic verses to himself and saying, "This is terrible", before calmly dropping the letters into the fireplace. This scene alone makes watching VOLTAIRE worthwhile.

France, 1762. Only one man dares to defy King Louis XV. Only one voice is raised against the bloodthirsty, corrupt Court. Only one pen can give utterance to the cry of the downtrodden masses. Crafty. Sly. Wily as any fox. Philosopher. Pamphleteer. Playwright. Poet. Essayist. Storyteller. Historian. Mocker. Wit. The first prophet of the Revolution. VOLTAIRE.

George Arliss, the greatest Hollywood actor of the early 1930's, and the most forgotten, gives another fascinating living history lesson in the title role. Full of fidgets, blinks & mutters, he makes his subject come alive as no book ever could. A consummate performer, Arliss achieved more with the lift of a finger or the curve of the lip, than other actors could with their entire body. He is a joy to watch.

A fine cast gives good support. Doris Kenyon is beautiful as the conniving Madame de Pompadour; Alan Mowbray is very good as a nasty courtier; Reginald Owen has a jolly time as vain, foolish Louis, a role he would reprise in 1934's MADAME DUBARRY. Doris Lloyd has a small part as an actress friend of Voltaire.

Warner Brothers obviously spent lavishly on this picture and it shows in the production. The sets & costumes are impeccable. Notice in particular the fun Arliss has with his wigs.

Now a brief historical reality check. The man who would later assume the name Voltaire was born François-Marie Arouet in 1694. By the time of the movie, he had already been imprisoned in the Bastille twice, and spent years in exile in England, Lorraine and Prussia. In 1762, Voltaire was not living in Paris, but in the French village of Ferney, located on the Swiss border, over which he could flee if need be. He lived there the last 20 years of his life. He died in 1778, at the age of 83.

If you are looking for a biography of Voltaire, I suggest you look further for many reasons. First, his philosophies really aren't explained well in this film other than his views on religious tolerance and liberty. Second, it only covers a tiny portion of his later life during the last years of the reign on Louis XV. And, third, the film really isn't intended as a history lesson but, like so many biopics of the era, strays rather far from the facts. Still, George Arliss was a fine actor, and I'd recommend any film in which he appears.

The story is about a tiny portion of Voltaire's life--when he takes up the cause of a specific man who was convicted on scant evidence and who was simply the victim of religious bigotry. And, the film consists of Voltaire scheming, very cleverly, to influence the fat-headed king to intervene and overturn the verdict. First, he writes a play which parodies the situation--changing the facts a bit but making the point which Voltaire wishes to put across to the king. Second, he enlists the help of the king's #1 babe, Madame Pompadour to get the king to offer Voltaire a chance to put on the play at Versailles. But, things backfire--can the wily Voltaire manage to extricate himself? I must let you know that I am generally not a big fan of costume dramas--mostly because they often come off as a bit stilted and stodgy. This one isn't as bad as many but it all the fine costumes and language did seem, at times, a bit stiff. Not bad at all--but it also seemed a bit preachy and unreal--especially Voltaire's crazed speech at 71 minutes into the film. Plus, the film jumped from the early 1760s to 1789 almost instantly--making it look as if Voltaire DIRECTLY initiated the French Revolution!!

By the way, I am not sure if the film would have been made after mid-1934, as the new Production Code cleaned up films--removing anything that might be objectionable. In some ways, this was strongly needed (as ANYTHING seemed to go in films in the early 30s). But, in others it over-sanitized things--and biopics on men of such liberal views on the Church and conventional morality as Voltaire were difficult sells in the new 'cleaner' (at least on the surface) Hollywood.