La rose noire

After finishing his run in Mister Roberts in London, Tyrone Power stuck around to film Thomas Costain's novel The Black Rose. Costain was a popular novelist of historical themes and high adventure. The latter is what The Black Rose has plenty of.

Power is the illegitimate son of a recently deceased lord who left him some money to the distress of his wife Mary Clare and son Laurence Harvey because in effect in the will he acknowledged the affair that produced Power. In addition Power is still possessing those old prejudices of the original Saxon inhabitants against the Norman conquerors. A lot of people are telling Power to get over it, but he won't.

In fact he takes off for adventure in the Far East with similarly minded Jack Hawkins who's most handy with an English longbow. A fact that impresses Mongol lord Orson Welles who gets Power and Hawkins into his service. Welles has intentions of conquering China, an ambitious task that has failed most in history.

The title refers to Cecile Aubry the French accented daughter of a Crusader who is in Welles's harem. But she likes what she sees in the two exiled Englishmen. She's supposed to be English and that might throw a few people, but one must remember England at the time occupied a good deal of what is France. I'm sure Costain better explained it in the novel.

Power is properly heroic, but also cynical at the same time. It takes a dose of Jack Hawkins's reawakened patriotism for Power to see where his duty lay.

The real historical characters of King Edward I and Roger Bacon appear in the story. Edward I nicknamed Longshanks is played by Michael Rennie and it's far more favorable and civilized picture of Edward than Patrick McGoohan did in Braveheart. Henry Oscar plays Roger Bacon who was Power's teacher at ancient Oxford and one of the most brilliant minds of his time.

Henry Hathaway one of the best action directors ever keeps the whole thing moving well. The book is a great deal more complex than what you see on the screen, it would probably make a good mini-series. The color cinematography is some of Jack Cardiff's best work.

For those like myself who like the romantic Tyrone Power, The Black Rose is a medieval tale of high adventure and romance and not to be missed by Power's still powerful legion of fans.

I know this was shown on Italian TV during my childhood but I'm not sure whether I had watched the film in its entirety - after this viewing, I certainly didn't recollect much of anything and, therefore, consider it as a first!

Anyway, I decided to catch up with it now as an accompaniment to star Tyrone Power's most popular vehicle - THE MARK OF ZORRO (1940). Unlike that one (shot in black-and-white on studio sets), however, this was splashed with color and had the benefit of location photography: still, it's a much inferior spectacle, and the main reason for this is that the plot itself singularly lacks excitement - despite being basically an amalgam of Ivanhoe (starting off in medieval England with our Saxon hero opposing the Norman rulers) and Marco Polo (he eventually travels to the Orient and brings back samples of their exotic heritage). Also, despite the imposing presence of Orson Welles as a fearsome but noble Mongol warrior, there's precious little action in this two-hour film (though it's never actually boring)!

Despite the Fox banner, this was a British-based production and, consequently, the supporting cast and technical credits are nothing to sneeze at - the former including such stalwarts as Jack Hawkins (an unlikely but amiable bowman and Power's sidekick), Michael Rennie, Finlay Currie (as Power's proud and cantankerous grandfather), Herbert Lom, James Robertson Justice and Laurence Harvey (impossibly young as a Norman prince), as well as Alfonso Bedoya (whose voice was allegedly dubbed by Peter Sellers!) and child actor Robert Blake; behind the camera were such talents as legendary cinematographer Jack Cardiff, composer Richard Addinsell and production designer Paul Sheriff. The weakest link in the film is clearly leading lady Cecile Aubry, who struggles too hard to be winsome but results only in being irritating most of the time (not surprisingly, her career wasn't a long-lasting one).

While certainly watchable and generally entertaining in itself, Power was better served by some of his other historical epics (among them the film that directly preceded it, PRINCE OF FOXES [1949], another - though more modest - collaboration with Orson Welles).

Tyrone Power stars in "The Black Rose," a 1950 adventure film also starring Jack Hawkins, Orson Welles, Cecile Aubrey, and Michael Rennie. Power plays Walter of Gurney, an Oxford scholar who hates the ruling Normans, takes off for Cathay with his friend Tris (Jack Hawkins). They wind up traveling with General Bayan (Orson Welles) and hiding a young girl, Maryam, known as The Black Rose.

The film is based on Thomas Costain's novel, and thanks to Tyrone Power, I became a fan of Costain's and read many of his books as a teenager. Very romantic, they'll get you through puberty. I seem to remember a lot of hotter encounters between Walter and Maryam, though the film does contain some romance.

"The Black Rose" was made at a time when 20th Century Fox and all of the other Hollywood studios were going through major changes since the government had broken the alliance between the studios and theater chains. Even with their problems, there is no expense spared on "The Black Rose." It is a sumptuous production, done on location and in color, with a top cast even in the minor roles: Herbert Lom, Laurence Harvey, Robert Blake, and famously, the voice of Peter Sellers dubbing the role of Bedoya.

The acting is uniformly good. Orson Welles played Bayan to fund one of his film projects. Normally he phones these performances in, using his formidable technique to get him through - he probably did the same here; sometimes it's hard to tell. He's excellent and underplays, being smooth in his role rather than barbaric, and he and Power have good screen chemistry. Off the screen, the two went back to the early '30s in New York when both were cast in a tour of Romeo and Juliet - this tour is captured in a roman a clef, "Quicksilver" by Fitzroy Davis. During the filming of "The Black Rose", director Hathaway needed some time away from Welles and, after being harassed by him in the company dining room, had a table set up in another room for himself, his wife, Tyrone Power and Linda Christian, so they could eat in peace. Welles became convinced they were getting special food and showed up. "We don't want special food," Hathaway informed him. "We want quiet." But Welles got his own table in this area, and the Powers and the Hathaways headed back to the main dining area.

Jack Hawkins is immensely likable as Tris. Cecile Aubrey, who would abandon her career and become a very accomplished screenwriter in France, is the gamine here. Some may find her a little too young-looking and a little too bubbly, but she is quite lovely as the childlike Maryam. Actually, she reminded me a little of Power's first wife, the French actress Annabella. Power is excellent as the adventurous Walter. One thing interesting about Power is that he never asked for scripts to be changed to reflect his age, and 20th Century Fox gave him scripts during this period that called for him to play characters anywhere from 10 to 15 years younger than he was, which in this movie is 36. It doesn't detract here; it's more obvious in "Rawhide," when he's supposed to be a green kid, and in "The Sun Also Rises." During their long working relationship, Zanuck apparently never thought of Power as anything but the young man he first hired in 1935. Walter is the kind or role the actor was sick of playing; he would shortly begin doing more stage work and form his own production company.

This is a sweeping adventure that many boomers will recall from "Saturday Night at the Movies" - like Power's swashbucklers, it's one of the previous generation's Saturday afternoon at the movies type films that young people remember fondly. I certainly do and am grateful for all the historical fiction I read as a result. Thankfully, this and other heretofore unreleased Power films will soon be available in a DVD collection.

One of those rare adventure films where the villain is nearly as admirable a character as the hero. Perhaps only Orson Wells could pull that off. In fact, the dynamic formula of Welles' villainy played against the shadowed virtues of Tyrone Power are here-in reminiscent of that same combination in another rarely seen gem, Prince of Foxes. A good film library should contain them both. I don't think either of them are actually available commercially. Life can be so cruel.

I saw this movie when I was twelve and identified with the young girl. I may have been young, impressionable, but involved with her character. I fell in love with Tyrone Power.I also felt Orson Welles was very handsome and knowledgeable. I thrilled to the thought of being in her place. I watched avidly the scenery as the film progressed for I was unable to travel as my family was not well off. I often dreamed of visiting foreign countries.I loved their beautiful costumes.I knew very little of the world and soaked up every moment.The Black Rose had many particulars of movies of today, romance,action,thrills,suspense,scenery,and a surprise ending. I believe any young girl of twelve to fourteen would love it today.I hope to see it again soon on Turner Classic Movies.