Espada Contra Espada

A delightful adaptation of one of my favourite Georgette Heyer novels, The Reluctant Widow is a tongue in cheek melodrama of spies and smugglers set in the Napoleonic era. It stars Jean Kent as the reluctant widow who marries a dying bounder to prevent him accusing a young lad of his murder and finds herself caught up in intrigue and danger, not to mention falling for the handsome and dashing Guy Rolfe. The supporting cast are all excellent, especially Jean Cadell as the housekeeper and Andrew Cruickshank as the vile and repulsive villain.

This has, on paper, quite a workmanlike cast to deliver a story of 18th century espionage but sadly it all falls rather flat. Jean Kent is "Helena" who marries a dying man so she can inherit his estate. Shortly afterwards, he duly pops his clogs and she finds herself embroiled in a conspiracy involving a dreadfully wooden Guy Rolfe ( - her new cousin "Lord Carylon") and a not much better Paul Dupuis ("Lord Nivelle"). Kathleen Byron features sparingly but even she cannot really help this dreary and frequently quite confusing costume drama catch fire. It's wordy and plodding, with what little opportunities to swash and buckle drowned thoroughly by the poorly written script and the somewhat token nod to Anglo-French history. Andrew Cruickshank pops up too and the eagle-eyed amongst us might spot the avuncular Peter Bull in a stagecoach. I usually enjoy these kind of films, but this one has little by way of production values or plot to redeem it, sorry.

The child of a once rich, now impoverished house, Jean Kent is on her way to become a governess when she is sort of kidnapped and wed to a dying man. After he does so, she comes to her new estate, filled with masterful men who mistreat her, French spies, and the odd smuggler or two trying to sell her duty-free booze. Her new cousin, Guy Rolfe, alternately makes love to her and despises her.

It is ridiculous, both in its over-the-top portrayal of its characters, its lack of any humor of any variety, and Miss Kent in particular, who seems to have mastered the art of fainting gracefully behind the ottoman at the moment when a more self-possessed leading lady -- Maureen O'Hara, say, or Gracie Fields -- might have done something more useful, like punching the man in the crotch, buying a cask of French brandy, or bursting into a rendition of "The Biggest Aspidistra in the World".

The Regency costumes look nice.

It's supposedly based on a Georgette Heyer novel. I am completely unfamiliar with Miss Heyer's works, but friends who have read them think highly of them, and Miss Heyer only permitted one more adaptation of a novel, a German movie of which no one has written an account. She wrote a clause into her will forbidding any adaptations, so I am willing to concede this probably was not a good one.

This is supposed to be a romantic historical drama of the Napoleonic times with intrigues on the highest levels, smugglers and villains, haphazard marriages, deceits, murders and furious fencing bringing down the house, but it is all just effects without substance. Guy Rolfe is generally a stately actor with interesting roles, but this role is wasted on him. Jean Kent is much better as a shrew, which is her common field of acting. The villain is too charming and good-looking to be convincing, and there are more rogues and scoundrels here than there is room for them in this sumptuous castle of a house. Apparently it all happens in Scotland, and the French intrigue seems a little far-fetched in the Scottish wilderness. Not even Kathleen Byron can save this film, mainly because her role is minimal. What a waste of wonderful scenery when they just have to smash it all in an endless sword fight, and on top of all this it is all predictable. Jean Kent landed in the wrong place from the beginning, but she learned to thrive in all its wickedness and turmoil of intrigue. Only the music is good.

Jean Kent, she of the immensely expressive facial expressions (see her also in the great "The Woman in Question", released the same year), is delightful as the put-upon but constantly resourceful damsel in distress in this forgotten period classic. I imagine it could be performed on stage today as pure camp, perhaps in a drag approach of Charles Busch.

Set against the backdrop of Napoleon at war with the Duke of Wellington, our heroine is thrust into a maddeningly rapid series of dangerous events, dealing with smugglers, spies, rakes and unsavory characters as novelist Georgette Heyer piles on the plot twists loaded with surprises and risque situations.

Guy Rolfe, unforgettable a decade later as "Mr. Sardonicus", plays the bad good-guy who manipulates Kent and seems untrustworthy when in fact he is rather selflessly serving England in the war. The marvelous story set-up has Kent suddenly marrying Rolfe's cousin, immediately becoming a widow, only to eventually marry Guy expecting to be widowed again.

She manages to maneuver her way through impossible perils, always witty and capable of handling unanticipated situations, especially when facing down a handsome villain played by yet another cousin, Scott Forbes (later to star as Jim Bowie on American TV).

Director Bernard Knowles maintains a brisk pace, using fast fades at the high points of many scenes, and with strong audience identification with Kent's character the movie draws you in to an adventurous bygone world.