Madame Du Barry

This wonderful film seemed to be more "MGM" than "Warner Brothers", because the period detail and lavishness of the clothes, sets and furniture is really great.

You can see & tell this lovely movie, one of the last "would-have-been" Pre-Codes, was badly "butchered" by the stronger censorship which was enforced by the Hays's-Breen Office, while it was being filmed?, because the holes in the plot MUST be due to an important "amount" of cuts.

In spite that the title role belongs to wondrously beautiful Dolores del Río, yet to reach higher acting ranks in her own native country (Mexico) in Emilio Fernandez's masterpieces "María Candelaria", "Bugambilia", et al, who does a very good job, as the mischievous "Comtesse Jeannette DuBarry", I feel that the film is almost stolen from her by reliable and funny Reginald Owen as the lecherous old King Louis XV, one of the all time great character actors.

This film is not really and historical/"pseudo-historical" drama, but more a comedy of sorts, with the Versailles Court as the back scenery, for all kinds of funny intrigues.

Anita Louise is pretty and sweetly "spoiled" as the young Marie Antoinette (this actress excelled in period stuff...she later acted in Warner's 1935 "A Midsummer's Night Dream" and "The Sisters" with Bette Davis, she "went again" to the XVIIIth Century France, this time to impersonate Marie Antoinette's doomed best friend, "La Princesse de Lamballe", in the sumptuous 1938 Shearer vehicle; and yet again, I remember her fondly in the highly enjoyable 1940's frolic "The Bandit of Sherwood Forest", opposite Cornel Wilde).

The rest of the supporting cast is uniformly very good, especially the players who impersonate the Dauphin (the future Louis XVI) and the Duke of Richelieu. And those three daughters of the King ("Mesdames"), are a joy to behold!

A Picture that deserves being watched.

It seems that Madame Du Barry really captured the imagination of Hollywood. The made a movie about her in 1912, 1917, 1919, 1928, 1930, 1934, 1935, and 1954. I watched the 1930 version starring Norma Talmadge. It was a romanticized version that they admittedly said was a fictionalized telling of Madame Du Barry's saga. Whether the 1934 version was more accurate or not, it was certainly more fun.

The spicy Dolores Del Rio played Jeannette Vaubernier aka Madame Du Barry. What "Madame Du Barry" captured, that "Du Barry, Woman of Passion" (1930) failed to capture, was that Jeannette was a prostitute. She was a known prostitute and King Louis XV (Reginald Owen) fell for her because she was so different. She was sassy, fearless, confident, and unrefined. And she had King Louis XV wrapped around her little finger. Naturally, people hated her for it.

Personally, I didn't hate her at all. I viewed her like I view a spoiled child; she was only doing what King Louis enabled her to do. If she turned the castle into her own playground and thumbed her nose at decorum, then King Louis was the blame. Madame Du Barry never pretended to be something she wasn't. She never aspired to be queen or to rule France, she was Cyndi Lauper up in that joint: she just wanted to have fun.

Dolores Del Rio brought all the sass and spunk she could for the role. She was the ultimate non-conformist and a third degree black belt in not giving AF. While some of her behavior could rightly be called impertinent and uncouth, you had to respect her at least a little.

Free on Odnoklassniki.

I've noticed that this film has been referred to as a "Pre-Code Film", though this is not the case. The strengthened Production Code was enacted as of July, 1934 and this film was not released until October, 1934. So, its plot with heavily implied sex was an apparent attempt to flaunt the code--and as a result, it was condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency--hurting its box office appeal to most Catholics.

As for my review, something you might want to keep in mind is that I am not a big fan of costume dramas. I find that all too often, the films look nice with all the lovely period dress BUT also tend to be rather sterile and dull--though of course, there are some exceptions. Back in the 1930s, they were rather popular--though in recent decades they've become rather rare--showing that perhaps my taste and the public's in general aren't too far apart here.

This film is about the last mistress of King Louis XV of France. For the most part, she dressed in the finest clothes and had her every whim catered to--which makes me wonder why they'd make such a film. After all, if she was a spoiled and vacuous whore (I'm definitely cutting to the heart of the matter), why is this so interesting as to merit a film? In other words, would the audience of the Depression even care about such a worthless individual? I know I sure didn't.

Sadly, the most interesting things about this infamous lady were her final days--which are not even addressed in the movie. Apparently, the people of the new French Republic also didn't care much for her and her extravagant lifestyle, so they had her beheaded. Considering how she lived while people starved, I say good riddance! And, with my attitude, you could assume I was not a big fan of this bloated costume drama or absolute monarchies! As for the film, Delores Del Rio runs around in nice gowns, acts snippy and childish and gets in a cat fight with the future queen, Marie Antoinette. Miss Del Rio's performance is very broad and it's hard to imagine her capturing anyone's heart as she doesn't exactly exude "sex appeal". As my daughter so eloquently pointed out "she's so flat!"---um, yes, I suppose that, too, is true but more importantly, she looked nothing like the surviving portraits of this trollop.

As for the king, Louis XV, the movie seemed to portray him rather accurately. Reginald Owen was about the right age, puffy and a bit of an incompetent given to his vices...in other words, he WAS Louis. His snippy ways with his ministers and too much attention to his affairs did characterize the latter years of his reign.

As for Marie Antoinette, I doubt if she continually screamed "I am Marie Antoinette of Austria!"--I THINK everyone around her already was well aware of this! She, like her husband (Louis XVI) and Madame Du Barry, seemed more like caricatures--one-dimensional and dull. I am sure these people had personalities--for good and for bad and were not much like the film portrays them.

Overall, the film looked good but didn't have much sense of time perspective. Apparently, Du Barry and the King were "best friends" for some time--though in this film, it looks like they'd only been lovers for a few days, weeks or perhaps months. Too sketchy to be of interest to history teachers like myself and probably too dull to anyone else.

By the way, in the final scene between Du Barry and Louis XV, the choice of music was odd. Why did they choose Beethoven...a German composer? Plus, this piece ("Pathetique") wasn't even written until well after Louis became worm chow.

I just saw this delightful 1934 film on TCM, mainly because I always enjoyed the star Dolores Del Rio. Story wise this is not historically accurate as our heroine was a schemeing vixen & paramour of Louis XV of France. This film is more of a comedy than history. Miss Del Rio was one of the most beautiful of all actresses of the time & a reasonably good actress. Reginald Owen A leading actor of the era plays King Louis XV superbly. Anita Louise is very good as Marie Antoinette, The queen was a teen then as well as the Dauphin who later becomes Louis XVI. The actor who plays him was superb,The dauphin was only 16 when he met Marie (who was 15), They definitly seem the ages. The sets & costumes are excellent. In the thirties all films were made on the studio lot.(Warner Bros.) They had real craftsmen back then. who created Palaces & gardens for next to nothing.

If you want to spend an enjoyable 80 minutes, catch this film I am glad I saw it.

rating *** 88 points/100 IMDb 8

On my one and only trip to Paris, I took a bus tour to the Palace at Versailles. The magnificently ostentatious palace was almost certainly visible to many of the poor peasants below. It's a monument to the obliviousness of the French monarchy before the revolution. So is this film.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that liberties were taken with the facts, and it left some events largely unexplained. But the overall theme is the arrogance of the upper classes right until the end. ("At least it's better than being hanged," says one character being led away to the penitentiary near the end, apparently unaware of their ultimate fate.)

Delores Del Rio is charming as the free-spirited Madame du Barry, and Reginald Owen is fine as the blustery, pompous Louis XV. I was particularly impressed with Maynard Holmes as the fat, inept, but good natured heir to the throne.

Definitely worth watching if your looking to kill some time with a glass of wine.