Le chevalier de la vengeance

This film stars two of the most stunning women ever to step before a camera, and two of the most troubled ones: Gene Tierney and Francis Farmer.

Set in Georgian era England, this is an absorbing film. It's the story of Benjamin Blake (played as a child by Roddy McDowell and later by Tyrone Power) who after being orphaned at an early age, is cheated out of his title and inheritance by Sir Arthur Blake (George Sanders), his sadistic uncle who keeps him as a bonded servant.

Ben escapes and stows away to a remote island in the South Pacific at a time when travel was a lot more difficult than dropping into Harvey World Travel or hitting the Trivago App on your iPhone. Years later he returns to England to put things right.

Along the way he falls in love with two women. The first is Sir Arthur's daughter, Isabel Blake (Francis Farmer). Not much of it is made in the film, but this surely would have to be a non-starter as she was his first cousin. Nevertheless, Francis Farmer was never photographed to better advantage than in "Son of Fury", dazzling is a fair description. This was her last movie before her life fell apart.

The second is Eve, the native girl Ben meets on the island played by Gene Tierney. The camera loved her and those amazing cheekbones that allowed her to play a wide range of ethnicities from Ancient Egypt to Polynesia - nearly always as a princess. It's sad knowing that this was about the time she too was overwhelmed by personal problems.

Tyrone Power made every movie he was in seem important. Not just darkly handsome, you felt there was depth to his characters, and he could wear a Regency top hat and coattails as though he was born to the era.

For anyone who loves movies of the golden age, the fact that the film stars George Sanders is reason enough to see it. Along with his trademark disdain he projects a powerful physical presence. He was a big dude and in the boxing scenes he looks surprisingly fit, and as though he knew some moves. It would be best to smile when calling him a fop.

The whole production is polished with plenty of glass shots and moody sets; the slightly unreal quality gives it a touch of movie magic. The film features brilliant characterisations right down the cast list, and Alfred Newman contributed a vibrant score drenched in salt air and the aroma of the South Seas.

You don't have to be a film buff to enjoy "Son of Fury", but it adds to the enjoyment if you know something of the stars and the filmmakers. They have all gone now, but this film is a lasting testimony to their talents.

'Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake' sounded like my kind of film. Love classic film, liked the idea of the story regardless of whether it was original or not and the cast seemed too good to resist. It is inviting enough to see especially Gene Tierney, George Sanders and Elsa Lanchester in any film, to see them in the same film along with Tyrone Power, Frances Farmer and Harry Davenport is enough to get anybody excited. It is always a plus too having Alfred Newman on board as composer.

Luckily did not find myself let down at all. 'Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake' turned out to be a very well done and entertaining film. To me, it really is something of a little treasure that is sadly is not particularly well known, hard when up against some of the best films ever made in one of film history's strongest decades and for those involved it is in the shadow of their better known work. This is a shame because 'Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake' does deserve to be better known and more widely available, and some of the cast actually give some of their most interesting and best work here (especially Tyrone Power and George Sanders), with such talent on board that is reason enough to see it.

Didn't find an awful lot wrong actually. The story is a slight one and can be predictable in places.

Also thought that Tierney's character was underused and underdeveloped.

However, 'Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake' is a gorgeously photographed film and while the locations may not be exactly authentic they are still handsome. Newman's score is lavish and sweeping in unmistakable Newman style, which will be an utter joy for fans of his and those who admire him. It moves at a lively pace without feeling rushed and there isn't anything really that slows things down. The script has wit and tautness, also with some sharply observed insights in class and human rights at the time, and the direction indicated somebody who knew what he was doing and what he wanted to accomplish. The story on the most part, while not perfect, still interests and it is impossible to dislike its charm and entertainment value. Some nice twists and surprises too.

There is a constant sense of fun and the action is genuinely exciting and well choreographed. The softer and more romantic scenes are charming and sweet, without being saccharine, while not making the mistake of slowing things down like romantic scenes in classic film did have the danger of doing. Parts are also surprisingly scary with Sanders' character, with a bold brutality that one doesn't expect. The cast are the main reason to see 'Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake' and why it works as well as it does. Power is dashing and charismatic, no unease or stiffness here, plus visually he smoulders. Regardless of whether Tierney is believable as an island girl (personally don't think she is, somewhat too glamorous), she still charms and is entrancingly beautiful, making the most of too little screen time.

Farmer makes just as much of an impression with more to do and with the more interesting role, and really gives it her all to both icy and poignant effect without being cold. Both she and Tierney are believable paired with Power, while Power convinces even more in his remarkably suspenseful moments with Sanders. Sanders is unflinchingly sinister, sometimes shockingly so, while maintaining his suavity, which was always very distinct. It was interesting seeing a young Roddy McDowell, while Elsa Lanchester is touching, John Carradine is both fun and atypically sympathetic and Harry Davenport is very endearing.

Overall, it is well worth digging this up. 8/10

Done a year before Tyrone Power went to war in those lovely South Sea Islands depicted here, Son of Fury is the film adaption of a best selling novel of that period, Benjamin Blake. I think Darryl Zanuck decided that Son of Fury had more of a box office ring to it.

Our protagonist is the disinherited scion of a landed gentry family. We meet Benjamin Blake as a child played by Roddy McDowall. No proof of the marriage of his parents can be found and his uncle George Sanders has taken over the family estate and made McDowall his ward, binding him legally to him in essential slavery. He puts him to work in the stable.

As McDowall grows up to be Tyrone Power, he gets a thing for Sanders's daughter Frances Farmer and she him. To be perfectly fair, we are treading into incestuous territory here and even a cad like Sanders has some reason for concern. It is the one real weakness of the plot. I wonder how this slipped by The Code.

Of course Power decides he's had enough and goes off to the South Seas where he gets involved with native princess Gene Tierney. In fact Son of Fury is distinguished because of Power's involvement with two of the great screen beauties, Gene Tierney and Frances Farmer. Tierney is busy poaching on Dorothy Lamour's sarong territory and had this been a Paramount film, Lamour would have had Tierney's part.

As for Farmer this was her last film before being confined to the mental hospital in a story that is now too well known. What a tragic waste of beauty and talent.

In a sense this is a reunion picture of sorts. Tyrone Power's break out film was Lloyd's of London, also set in Georgian England and also having George Sanders playing a Georgian cad. In fact the word cad is virtually synonymous with George Sanders on the screen. Nobody could play the cad better, no one ever has since.

Sanders is my favorite in Son of Fury, the man you pay your ticket for to boo. Seeing Son of Fury is to see Sanders at his finest.

Most movies of Hollywood Golden Age are attractive. They share cleverly constructed plot and dialogue, high-standard direction and actors' performances. Perhaps because of the charm of past times, as a rule the characters are very nice guys, even the villains, like in "Son of Fury": who is really able to detest George Sanders? Yet sometimes a motive in the movie makes it outstanding. This is the case of "Son of Fury". In fact it shows the materialization of the most romantic dream of our youth, even improving it: to live in Polynesia and... with Gene Tierney! Gene is the improvement to our own dream. Her capacity to be lovely is unbelievable: just the scene when she uses a fork like a comb would be worth seeing the movie. And what about her polynesian dance in grass-skirt? When Tyrone Power leaves the island to take his revenge in England, the audience is disappointed: we don't see the point in leaving Paradise. The director seems to realize this feeling: in fact, Power's come-back to England is more an act of justice than of revenge. Anyway, we feel relieved when he finally settles his business and returns to the island, to his friends, to her. And there she is, alone on the reef... What is more common in a movie than the final kiss? Yet this one has something special. In that instant, we all are Tyrone Power and she... she is Gene Tierney, what could be better?

Some may remember Kenneth Anger taking this lush film's title and gender-bending it a bit to give his Frances Farmer chapter in "Hollywood Babylon" its tabloid tone, but this is truly a great movie (outside of the fact that it features not one, but two Tinseltown beauties who, in Anger's salacious words "drank at the well of madness") ... Farmer, after a string of uneven pictures, is relegated to a supporting role here, but actually fares better than leading lady Gene Tierney because 1) her role is far more complex and 2) her on-screen chemistry with star Tyrone Power is much more palpable. Perhaps the saddest thing about "Son of Fury" is the knowledge that despite the now recurrent difficulties being reported from the set, Farmer had caught herself a break and maybe a chance to finally ride out Paramount's punishment -- starting in 1938, of course, with the aptly-named (and perfectly awful) "Ride A Crooked Mile". But as we all know, the road got bumpier, the turns sharper and the potholes unavoidable ... To see Farmer surrounded not only by the likes of such A-list talent as Power and Tierney, but a stellar George Sanders and very young Roddy McDowell is to get a glimpse of what might have been. To read accounts of Farmer being tricked into watching this film years later while incarcerated in an insane asylum, if indeed true, is unforgivable ... Watch "Son of Fury" for everything the Golden Age of Hollywood purported to be -- solid, if not overly- spectacular, entertainment. It may not be the last film of Farmer's short-lived career, but it is our last look at this fine young actress at her peak -- as stunning and mythic as she was years earlier in "Come And Get It" -- but now with an undeniable sadness melting from within.