The Masquerader

It's a very funny comedy, it's a moving drama, it's a heartfelt tragedy, it's a great feel-good movie, it's a clever satire, it's exciting....it's simply brilliant! As absurdly far-fetched the story is, you still believe in what you're watching.

It's set in the 1920s, a time when countries were looking for "a great man" to save them from the economic catastrophe of the paying for the war. We also had the much more serious, GABRIEL OVER THE WHITEHOUSE where a 'fascist' president took over the US - that was in a time when fascism hadn't turned into what it became and wasn't a dirty word yet. I wonder did Oswald Mosley watch these films and thought this could be about him? Had he not gone so horribly, horribly off-track, he might very well have been a great leader instead of what he became. In this, Ronald Colman's charismatic and inspiring MP might have been that man once upon a time but not now. It's for the other Ronald Colman to save the day! Although this is a daft comedy, it does engage your brain and get those little grey cells working.

If today you tried to pitch a film idea to a studio of something like a mix between TOP HAT with THE WEST WING you'd get booted out of the office but that is kind of one way to describe this. Amazingly it doesn't just work, it really works. If you enjoying a comedy with proper serious acting and a clever plot, you should love this.

Both Ronald Colmans (Colmen?) are at their charming and erudite best. Their performances and the overall exceptional production values makes the utterly preposterous story seem perfectly plausible and great fun. The film has a lovely warm comforting assurance to it. You know from the first five minutes what's going to happen so you can relax in its gently massaging water as it hugs you to the inevitable happy ending.

This is one of those early thirties pictures that's as entertaining today as the day it when it was made. You don't need to like ancient movies to like this one, just well-made ones.

I consider myself fortunate to finally get to see The Masquerader for the first time in about forty years. Ronald Colman's dual performance as a dissolute Member of Parliament and his lookalike writer cousin still holds up well.

Finding out that the basis for the film version, a second version I might add of this film was a 1904 novel knocked certain notions from my head. I do think that the modern crisis alluded to in the film is based on the General Strike that Great Britain was undergoing in 1926. It would not surprise me if newsreels of the period were incorporated into the film. In real life however Stanley Baldwin's government was not toppled, in fact most historians give him great kudos for his handling of the crisis.

As the story opens party members are looking to promising young MP Colman for some brilliant oratory that will topple the existing government which is unable to cope with a domestic crisis. Greatness calls but Colman is not answering. He's become alcohol and drug dependent with the demands of public life coming on top of a bad domestic situation with both wife Elissa Landi and mistress Juliette Compton making his private life hell as well.

A passing run in that Colman has with his lookalike cousin gives butler Halliwell Hobbes an idea. Cousin Colman substitutes for the MP and does rally the party and becomes the toast of the nation. The cousin also has to do some fast thinking on his feet as far as the wife and mistress are concerned.

I think the character of the MP is based on Lord Randolph Churchill who for reasons of his own dissolute enjoyment of the vices took a rapid tumble in a brilliant career to be. His son certainly fulfilled the promise that that father had. As for the film itself I venture to say that the lookalike substitution may have its inspiration from The Man In The Iron Mask. And if you think about the MGM comedy Callaway Went Thataway has a very similar plot development. Of course that one was played strictly laughs and laughs are very few in The Masquerader.

Ronald Colman was nothing short of brilliant here, excelling in both roles. Kudos should also be given to Halliwell Hobbes who played many butlers in his career, but was never better here. In the end Hobbes is entrusted with a secret that could involve the history of the realm itself.

Ronald Colman is better known for playing that other dual role in The Prisoner Of Zenda. He may very well have been cast in that part by David O. Selznick on the strength of what he did here in The Masquerader.

...about a drug addicted British MP, who is falling apart, who encounters a lookalike cousin in a London fog, later seeks him out to replace him in the House of Commons the following day when a great speech is expected of him. Not surprisingly for a melodrama of this kind the cousin accepts the offer and carries off the speech with flying colors to the praise of all England. It then becomes difficult for the cousin to extricate himself from his fake ID, however, things becoming even more complicated when the MP's wife returns home from France.

These two cousins are so alike, not only in appearance but voice that nobody, of course, can tell them apart, including the wife as well as the MP's mistress. Despite the silliness and familiarity of the story, once you get past the implausibilities of the plot, The Masquerader is a fun film (impossible to take seriously, of course) thanks to the charm and skill of Ronald Colman in the dual roles of druggie MP and smooth talking imposter cousin. It reminds one of Colman's similar dual turn four years later in The Prisoner of Zenda.

Elissa Landi plays the MP's wife who, after a strained marriage with the MP, falls in love all over again with her imposter husband. Halliwell Hobbes, forever cast as a butler, is in that familiar role once again, only this time he's the only one in the film who actually knows there are two Colmans. The split screen effects, by the way, in which we see Colman sharing the screen with Colman, are expertly achieved, on a par with the similar effects in Zenda a few years later.

There's no question but that "The Masquerader" is dated. This 1933 movie is set in a London contemporaneous with the era in which it was filmed and portrays a highly stratified social milieu that has all but disappeared in the intervening eight decades; one is almost surprised that the constable at the doors of the House of Commons doesn't pull his forelock as he addresses the parliamentarians who emerge. But the movie is nimbly and deftly made and features both good acting in its principal and secondary roles and sure direction by Richard Wallace. Portraying both the dissolute Sir John Chilcote and his identical cousin John Loder, Ronald Colman is afforded the opportunity to display both his louche and noble sides (qualities he was to exploit to greater advantage in "A Tale of Two Cities" made two years later) and Colman makes the most of it. He's ably assisted here by Elissa Landi, Juliette Compton and the ubiquitous Halliwell Hobbes (playing his faithful, if long-suffering manservant, Brock). And, really, it's the acting that makes this movie come to life; in the hands of lesser thespians the much-used plot and only serviceable dialogue would begin to display the threadbare attributes of the cinematically shop-worn. But good acting always has the ability to move us... or it should. The joy that Colman's and Landi's characters feel when the expected but nonetheless surprising ending to "The Masquerader" rolls 'round is palpable and -- in a cool, present-day cinematic era when highly charged emotion is regarded as somewhat suspect -- refreshing.

'The Masquerader', an obscure drama starring Ronald Colman, is very similar in its premise and subplots to Colman's great vehicle 'The Prisoner of Zenda' ... but he did 'The Masquerader' first. As in 'Zenda', Colman plays lookalike cousins who meet after many years of living in two different countries ... one of whom has an opportunity to take over the other's life, while falling in love with the other man's disenchanted lady.

Colman's main role is John Loder (no relation to the bland actor of that name), a disaffected journalist who returns to his native England after many years abroad. Loder's more successful cousin is Sir John Chilcote, a prominent member of Parliament. But Chilcote is secretly a morphine addict, and his addiction is becoming harder to conceal. Also concealed (not very well) is Chilcote's philandering relationship with Lady Joyce, while his estranged wife Eve (Lady Chilcote) is humiliated on the sidelines.

When Sir John's addiction causes him to collapse just before he introduces a crucial piece of legislation, Chilcote's loyal manservant Brock persuades Loder to impersonate his cousin. Loder, pretending to be Chilcote, gives an impassioned speech on the floor of Commons. Lady Chilcote has been estranged from her husband for years; now, attending this speech, she wonders why she is suddenly attracted to her husband again ... not realising that this is actually Loder impersonating Lady Chilcote's husband. (Shades of Princess Flavia in 'Zenda'.) Meanwhile, Loder (still pretending to be Chilcote) is utterly cold to Chilcote's mistress Lady Joyce, much to her bafflement.

SPOILERS COMING. Sir John dies of his addiction, without this becoming public knowledge. Brock persuades Loder to abandon his own life and become Sir John Chilcote permanently, appropriating Chilcote's wealth and reputation. Of course, this means that Loder will now be married to Lady Chilcote. Hmmm...

'The Masquerader' is not very plausible, yet it's quite enjoyable. Ronald Colman gives two distinctly different performances in the lookalike roles... although his turn as the drug-addicted Chilcote is a bit too overwrought. Moss Hart's smooth dialogue papers over some of the cracks in the plot line. Gregg Toland's photography is up to his usual high standard, and I was especially impressed by the scenes in which both Ronald Colmans are on screen at the same go. (Most dual-role movies made during this period featured flat sideline lighting during the double-exposure sequences; Toland avoids this.) Also well-photographed is a night sequence in Hyde Park (filmed on the Goldwyn Studio's backlot); Toland keeps the lighting bright enough for us to see the action, but dark enough to minimise the obvious fakery of the scenery. Creighton Hale is good in a small role. In the role of Lady Eve Chilcote, Elissa Landi is appropriately patrician (and slightly less blonde than usual), but her performance is weak. In the role of Lady Joyce, Juliette Compton is so dull and unattractive that I had difficulty believing Sir John would ever prefer her to his wife. The studio reconstruction of the House of Commons is a lot more convincing than I expected it to be, especially for a Yank film. I'll rate this movie 8 out of 10.