A Indomável Angélica

This is the fourth film in the Angelique saga.Both this one and the fifth one("Angélique et le sultan" ) are actually one long flick divided into two parts.Both are Anne and Serge Golon's "Indomptable Angélique" transferred to the screen.

The first films of the series roughly followed the plots of the novels.But ,from "Angélique et le roy" onwards,they started to wander from them dramatically.For example ,"Angelique et le roy" consisted of the last part of the three which the novel featured.And Peyrac did appear in it whereas he is absent from the novel.

"Indomptable Angelique" :Angelique goes in search of her husband Joffrey de Peyrac who did not die on the stake .Golon's novel was oversimplified :numerous characters who appear in it have been ruled out:Desgrez,the king's policeman,Nicolas Calembredaine(galley slave in the novel)....The part of the old Savary is more important in the novel.Moreover ,Peyrac has become a masked pirate ,Le Rescator .In the movie,Had Robert Hossein been masked ,the audience would have giggled.Unfortunately a lot of Golon's magic is gone.

From the novel,the scenarists kept the most "daring" scenes:Angelique handed over to D'Escrainville's men down in the hold,then to ferocious cats ,then sold in a slaves market.At the time,the audience was very disappointed,even Angelique's fans ,because ,not only the movie was very short(barely 80 min)but it also abruptly ended.

In the previous film, Angelique (Michele Mercier) discovered her first husband - and one and only true love - Jeoffrey (Robert Hossein), is alive after believing for seven years he was dead. Determined to find him, she sails to the Mediterranean in search of him.

Meanwhile, Jeoffrey regained his fortune, and avenges King Louis XIV for what he did to him (in the first film). Robert Hossein is as sexy as ever!

As is the norm with Angelique, there are numerous obstacles in her way, and once again she finds herself with men wanting a piece of her. Men wanting to seduce her, has been a constant occurrence in these films, but I must admit to finding it a bit exaggerated in this film, with men being depicted as sex hungry animals.

But with pirates, warships, sea battles and Angelique being sold as a slave, 'Untamable Angelique' is her most exciting adventure yet, set almost entirely at sea. The film once again boasts beautiful costumes, although less so than the previous films due to its setting. There were much more action and adventure in this installment.

Angélique follows the trace of her former husband, count Peyrac, who is now living with pirates in a hiding-place somewhere on a Mediterranean island. He seems to turn into a kindred spirit of Captain Nemo, inventing a diving bell, hiding from the rest of the world, but with the political aim to do as much damage to the King's fleet as possible. Angélique, however, is captured by other pirates who intend to sell her at the slave-market...

This movie was cut down to 80 minutes in my country, which is 20 minutes shorter than each of the previous episodes and 15 minutes shorter than the original version. That might indicate that a little less care was spent by the distributors on the contents, as long as the money kept coming. I suppose it wasn't censorship, because even the edited version contains a rape scene on a pirate ship and some nudity in the slave-market scene; actually this is the only episode of the series which may seem to cross the border from historical fantasy to exploitation sometimes. Talking of exploitation, I spotted a familiar face from many Jess Franco movies: Paul Muller has an appearance as a Maltese Knight, uncredited. I voted 8/6/7/6/6 for the 5 movies of the series.

adventures. and Michelle Mercier. fight scenes and few slices of eroticism. and the sacrifice of novel for create a public more large. same not of series, the same search of Peyrac, few scenes who search be memorable and Oriental spice. short - a popular movie inspired by popular novels about a brave, courageous and passioned woman. after decades, not the story itself could be seductive but the flavor of a genre from the ''60's - the adventure film and the French form of it. important in that case is the old fashion flavor. the same for entire series. the crumbs of feminism, the true love, the beauty of the lead actress, the costumes, the credible performances as pieces of the construction. a series for memories or for discover the sensitivity of a public.

This has way more action now the 4th in the series, and just also the first to not be set in France anymore so the naval settings are something else, the character pirates are ruthless folks, but there is always one good guy amongst the evil that assists that is great, also great faces of the various people. Careful of topless smut in a scene of auctioning off the girls. Corsica mentioned definitely because of Napoleon, but like a century before this movie obvious for that addition.