Silent movies - When a Man Loves

I warned you. I said the profile would be back and here it is. Applause for Mr. John Barrymore, ladies and gentlemen!

I even broke my rule of the first picture
always being the theatrical poster if there's one.

Please also welcome his third wife Dolores Costello.
Today's movie is "When a Man Loves" which is based on the 18th century French novel "Manon Lescaut".

Here's the plot (as usual with spoilers).
A little warning first. My feelings towards the movie may have colored my description just a tad 😐

Young Chevalier Fabien des Grieux has devoted his life to church, but when he meets the even younger Manon who is taken to a convent by her brother André, they passionately fall in love at first sight. Fabien has only just received a medal sent by the Bishop to protect him against temptations of the flesh, but drops it to the floor on the first look.
Comte Guillot de Morfontaine, who has shared the siblings' carriage, offers André a lot of money for Manon. Of course Fabien rescues her and they escape to Paris where they spend a happy week together - even though Fabien has to hock his shoe buckles so he can buy Manon a locket. "But this silly locket isn't what I wanted!" Off to a great start.

This plan has not been thought through completely.
Or rather not at all.

Tiberge, Fabien's friend, finds Manon - as does her brother -, but while he can't persuade her to "give Fabien back to them", them being his father and God, André manages to make her leave with him by threatening Fabien with prison.
Fabien is devastated when he comes back and finds Manon's note - half of which André has torn off in order to deceive Fabien into thinking Manon has left him voluntarily - even more so after his friend Tiberge who has come searching for him tells him about her and Morfontaine and points out Manon driving by in a fancy carriage. Of course he doesn't know that Manon had escaped and almost been assaulted by a commoner before André has found her and taken her back.

"Oh Manon, Manon." All she left for Fabien is a note
and her kitten Fifi to take care of "until she's back".
Sorry to say that, but Manon is young, but also an idiot.
Not sure Fabien is much better.

At a club Fabien meets the couple again. Manon is delighted to see him, but he causes a scandal by throwing gold coins at her he has won gambling and leaves. Tiberge informs his father that he's back at the seminary studying for priesthood.
The night before he will take the vow of priesthood, however, Manon turns up at the church.

"I love only you, Fabien, I have left him." (Going where?)
 "You still wear his jewels!" (So dramatic! And hammy.)
"I'm sorry, Fabien - but I'm just a woman. I shall always
love jewels and pretty clothes. Oh, and I have missed
you and Fifi so much." "Well, why didn't you say so?
Let's run away once more before you end up in the streets!"
Ok, not all of these are exact quotes, but still.

So those two fools run off again and lead a merry life - still unmarried, with brother André in the house, and have "golden days", thanks to FATHER'S CREDIT. You gotta be kidding me. Of course Dad stops the credit after hearing Fabien's back together with Manon.

"Oops. No money. That's unexpected. Why don't I tell
Manon to buy the expensive necklace?"
What the heck is wrong with you, Fabien??

Fabien can't bear the thought to deny Manon any luxury, though, so André suggests cheating at cards for which Fabien shows an amazing talent.

Back to Morfontaine who still isn't ready to give up Manon. He wants Cardinal Richelieu to convince King Louis XV to help him get her back. The King is smitten with Manon's beauty, though, and insists on gambling with Fabien for her. Two aces of diamonds are shown and of course the King can't be accused of cheating and thus wins Manon, but Richelieu convinces him that Manon would just drag the royal name through the mud and to leave her to Morfontaine instead.
Meanwhile, Fabien fights trying to save Manon. That's right, we are entering the swashbuckling phase now.

"That's right, I'm not just a pretty good cheat, but
also a great fighter. What are four or five men to me?"

Still refused by Manon, the Comte has her taken to the Prison of the Magdalen for deportation to Louisiana. Fabien rushes over there to ask the Prefect of Police for mercy. Surprise! The Prefect is Morfontaine who shows him Manon just boarding the cart taking the "fallen women" to the ship and promises Fabien the scaffold.

Not a brilliant idea, Monsieur le Comte, after all of
your experiences with Fabien you had expected
him to be caught quietly when he's quite
obviously mad (with love)? R.I.P.

Fabien follows the carriage and jumps in and follows Manon onto the ship as well.
And who catches the captain's eye? Well, it's Manon of course. Fabien's intervention gets him sent to the hellhold (no typo, that's what the title card says), but one of the other women helps Manon saying she's ill.

Fabien has plans of his own. He incites his fellow prisoners to mutiny and he's giving it his all jumping around in the cage until they break their chains successfully and take over the ship.

I'm getting definite Mr. Hyde vibes in here.

Manon gets saved yet again and she and Fabien leave in a small boat.
"Yonder - America! For us freedom - and everlasting love."

The happy ending the book doesn't have. If they
make it through the stormy sea in that tiny boat, that is.
They got that far, though, so they probably will.

A lot of people seem to like, no, love this movie. So romantic. Oh, the things he does for her. The amazing chemistry between the two lovers. Compelling performance. A wonderful period drama. Everything from romance to swashbuckling. I could keep going.

But I don't love it. In fact, I was sooo close to not finishing it. After about 15 minutes. These two annoyed me so much, and I wasn't sure it was because of the story (which, to remind you, is based on an 18th century novel (that I'm definitely not going to read)), because of the acting (I've seen overacting before, but it never bothered me this much), because of the chemistry (which I couldn't find, but I have to admit I had a problem seeing a 45 year old Barrymore supposed to be around the same age as a 23 year old Costello and couldn't get over that) or if it's my current mood.

Mind you, I loved the costumes ("I'm just a woman. I shall always love jewels and pretty clothes", you remember) and I honestly think I could have had a LOT of fun with Barrymore's acting - just look at the pictures I have chosen - but not with this story. Or those people.
You know, I really think that's it - I just couldn't put up with Manon and Fabien and their love story.
Heck, I had fewer problems with Morfontaine. At least Sam de Grasse made a great villain (just as he did as Prince John in "Robin Hood" and the pirate lieutenant in "The Black Pirate").

Then there was, as silly as it may sound to you, Fifi.
It made me nervous how they kept handling the kitten, it was always around, even when Fabien went out drinking. Then they showed Fifi once grown up and that was it which was actually better for my peace of mind.

I'm sorry, I know this is a lot of rambling, but that's exactly the feeling the film gave me.
Well, I said before that I will always tell you my personal opinion and in this case I didn't even use any sources.
The movie will not end up on my re-watch list, but that doesn't mean I'm going to give up on John Barrymore as well. The profile will be back eventually!

Oh, one last thing. Cardinal Richelieu. I just have to show you a picture of him. Makeup goals? A little cat on the cheek?

The Court Jester

"The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true!"
"The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon; the vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true!"

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings is doing the Summer of Angela (Lansbury), this time with one of my all time favorite movies, "The Court Jester" from 1955 with Danny Kaye, Glynis Jones, Basil Rathbone, and of course Angela Lansbury. Here is her post.

Public domain via
Wikimedia Commons

Here's the plot (with spoilers). I'm already apologizing because there's a lot of plot with a lot of twists and reading it can be quite confusing. I could have made this really, really short or, well, the way I did.

Hubert Hawkins is a carnival entertainer in the Black Fox's band of rebels protecting the infant King of England after Roderick the Tyrant has had the Royal Family killed and taken the throne. He'd like to join the fight and offers a group of acrobatic little people to provide entertainment instead of him, but the Black Fox refuses.
Instead he and Maid Jean, the Black Fox's captain, are to disguise themselves to take the baby to the safe Abbey of Dover. When they seek shelter during the stormy night, they show their affection for each other, but first the usurper must be defeated.
Then they meet the King's new jester, Giacomo. Jean seizes the opportunity to gain access to the castle by knocking Giacomo out and telling Hawkins to take over for him while she will take the heir to Dover. There's a secret passage from the castle to the forest, so if Hawkins manages to get the key, the rebels can take the castle over. There's already a man in the castle who can't get the key himself, but can help Hawkins.

Unfortunately, they do not know that Giacomo is also an assassin hired by the King's right hand, Lord Ravenhurst, to murder three of the Lords in court and thus prevent the King seeking alliance with Sir Griswold in exchange for his daughter Gwendolyn's hand.
Also Jean gets held up by the King's men who gather the most beautiful women in the country to bring to the court. Luckily, their man in the castle, Fergus, can hide the baby.

Gwendolyn refuses to marry such a brute because her maid, the castle's witch Griselda, has promised her a dashing man. Desperate because Gwendolyn threatens to die and take her to death with her if she has to marry Griswold, Griselda tells the Princess that Hawkins, who has just arrived, will be her love.

From there, about anything that can go wrong, goes wrong. Of course Ravenhurst thinks Hawkins is Giacomo, and due to a misunderstanding, Hawkins thinks Ravenhurst is the rebel instead of Fergus.
Then Griselda casts a hypnotic spell to make him the dashing lover, a snap of the fingers will turn the spell on and off. On his way to the Princess, he meets Jean who has managed to steal the key. He doesn't recognize her, but she slips him the key. The King, who had asked Hawkins to pick one of the ladies for him, thinks he has chosen Jean.
Hawkins woos Gwendolyn who takes the key from him for their escape together, but then the King finds and takes it from her. Hawkins also receives orders from Ravenhurst. He forgets everything, though, after being released from the spell.

At Jean's command, Fergus takes the basket with the baby to Hawkins shortly before he is supposed to perform for the King. With his performance he manages to distract the audience from the basket and Jean can take the baby to safety again.
Griselda poisons the three lords which makes Ravenhurst think Hawkins carried out his orders.
When Griswold arrives, though, Gwendolyn says she loves the jester and Hawkins is arrested. Also Ravenhurst's agent tells him that he's not the real Giacomo.
Ravenhurst's conclusion is that Hawkins must be the Black Fox, so he suggests to the King to have him knighted quickly to allow Griswold to challenge him to mortal combat, presumably so that the Princess will have to marry Griswold, but really to have the Black Fox kill him.

Jean steals back the key and gives it to Fergus who manages to send it to the rebels by pigeon before he gets killed.
Hawkins is knighted in a rushed ceremony (one of my favorite scenes, I still say "yea verily yea" to myself a lot when I do something!). Jean tells him to accept the duel because the Black Fox will come and fight in his stead. That plan fails when part of the secret passage caves in and no one can get through - no one?



Anyhow, Hawkins has to fight the duel himself, but Griselda, threatened by Gwendolyn again, says she has poisoned Griswold's toast and gives him the instruction for telling which cup is poisoned. Just when he has memorized the verse, one of the cups gets broken and the verse changes.
They get overheard by one of Griswold's men, though, so now both duelists try to get the safe drink. The King gets tired of it and orders the mortal combat to begin immediately.



Due to Hawkins's armor having been struck by lightning, it is magnetic and thus Griswold is pulled off his horse as his flail sticks to Hawkins's shield.
Ravenhurst then calls him out as the Black Fox and Jean and he are taken before the King as traitors and the basket with the baby brought in.
The Black Fox, however, has called on Hawkins's acrobatic friends, the little people who have managed to come through the secret passage while the rebels, who have come via the coastal road, enter the castle disguised as monks.
Hawkins and Ravenhurst start a sword fight that Hawkins is about to lose when Griselda hypnotizes him again. In the end, he and Jean manage to catapult Ravenhurst into the sea with the help of two of the acrobats.

When Griswold arrives to demand the King's release from the rebels, Hawkins shows him and the court the birthmark on the true heir, the purple pimpernel on the baby's bottom.
The fight is won and Hawkins and Jean get their happy ending, too.

I have loved this movie as long as I can think back.
Usually I'm not much of a fan of non-musicals having songs, but these ones I like.

It's not hard to tell that this is a parody, but also a bit of a homage to the popular swashbucklers. Of course, the Black Fox and his rebels make you think of Robin Hood and his Merry Men right away. The difference is that this story is told from the point of view of Hawkins, an unlikely hero with an unlikely love story.
I never liked the Black Fox because I thought he was condescending to Hawkins. Granted, Hawkins is not trained in the art of fighting, he's an entertainer, but he proves that he can be brave for the cause and in the end that mix - and some magic and a lot of luck - is what helps win back the throne for the rightful heir.

Were this a Robin Hood movie, Hawkins would be Alan-A-Dale, but who would be Maid Marian?
Depending on the version, Maid Marian was either at the court - that would be Princess Gwendolyn - or she lived with the Merry Men - that would be Maid Jean. 
Gwendolyn, however, is no Marian. She's the usurper's daughter and a spoilt and selfish young lady. I think Angela Lansbury played that role beautifully the way she ignored the wishes of her father without batting an eye or threatening a Griselda, the witch, without hesitation to make her do her bidding (she's also smart enough not to look her in the eyes). Makes you wonder what would have happened to Gwendolyn under the new King.
Actually, I wondered every time who would have taken over until the baby was old enough. That's just the way my brain works. I'm digressing, sorry.
Maid Jean is not really Marian, either. She's a captain in the band of rebels and wants to see the true King on the throne willing to put her personal feelings last until the goal is reached. She's also smart and courageous. Her love story is not with the rebel leader, though. Instead she loves Hawkins although he hasn't even shown yet how brave he really is which is very sweet.

Well, and Basil Rathbone is a wonderful villain as Ravenhurst and practically making fun of his swashbuckler roles before this one, such as King John's Guy of Gisbourne, for example.

There's no denying that this is Danny Kaye's movie, tailored to some of his many talents (I say some because they went way beyond acting, singing, and dancing!) one of which was his skill of wordplay and delivery of high-speed tongue twisters, but also of slapstick and pantomime.
I loved the idea of the hypnotic spell which gave Kaye the opportunity to change character within seconds and that shows nowhere better than in the sword fight between Hawkins and Ravenhurst.
Basil Rathbone who was the best fencer in Hollywood was amazed at Danny Kaye's fencing skills after training for only a few weeks (nevertheless there was a stunt double for Rathbone in some parts of the fight, the probable reason is explained in this interesting video).
As Hawkins is under the spell through some of the fight which gets turned on and off, however, there is a mix of skilled swordplay and wildly flailing around to stay alive - absolutely hilarious!

I have always been a big fan of the Robin Hood legend through a book we had, but also my first TV encounter with it which was "The Adventures of Robin Hood" with Richard Greene (thinking about it, there might be a re-watch in order) and of course "The Adventures of Robin Hood" with Errol Flynn. Often being a fan of the underdog in a movie, I found "The Court Jester" to be the perfect combination for me.
I loved the sets, the bright colors, the beautiful costumes for both women and men, the fun, and even the songs.
Actually I loved the film so much that I ordered it from the USA almost 20 years ago because it wasn't available in Germany then. Weirdly, that DVD disappeared eventually, but luckily it had also come out in Germany by then (I love the movie in English and German).

Not everyone was as enthusiastic as I had been from the start.
"The Court Jester" got good enough critical reviews, but it was a box office fail. The film had been the most expensive comedy movie produced up to that time (due to the sets and costumes), but only made about half of the money back.
Over the years, however, it has become one of those cult classics a lot of people like to watch over and over - me, me! - and love to quote from.

So if you really don't know this movie yet, give it a try. You might well be positively surprised how much fun a 70 year old movie can be! It's much less confusing when you watch it, too.
I will never tire of watching it myself.

The Exile

Surprise! I know you didn't expect a movie post this week from me for the "Winter of Fairbanks Jr." which Lisa from Boondock Ramblings does on her blog, but Lisa changed movies, so I'm here after all.

This week's movie is The Exile from 1947. Checking the plot, I was quite sure I had seen it before, but ages ago.
After watching it on YouTube - not in a very good quality unfortunately, but you take what you can get - I knew I had been right although I hadn't remembered everything in detail.

Film poster (fair use via Wikipedia)

The movie is about King Charles II. of England during his exile.
Charles is in exile in Holland waiting patiently for being able to return to his home as King.
When at a market to buy food from what little money he has, he meets Katie who has a tulip farm and runs an inn, but being in debt to her cousin, she's in danger of losing everything.
With "Roundheads" around (a derisive term for supporters of the Parliament after the hairstyle some Puritans wore at the time as opposed to the Royalist Cavaliers), Charles decides to cut his hair short and hide with Katie as a worker both on the farm and in the inn.

Then a man claiming to be the King turns up and stays at the inn.
Another guest is Countess Anabella, a former lover of Charles. She brings him a gift from the French king, a music box which Charles gets pawned the next day to pay off Katie's debt. Katie becomes jealous of Anabella and dismisses Charles before he can give her the good news. When she meets Anabella once more, though, who tells her about it, she eagerly waits for Charles to return. When he turns up again, she falls into his arms and they kiss for the first time.

Meanwhile, Colonel Ingram has come from England to find Charles and kill him, but as he hasn't seen him for years, he doesn't recognize him, but asks him to spy for him instead.
When the false King comes out of his room, Ingram thinks he's the real one and tries to kill him upon which the man admits that he is an actor without work who has pretended to be Charles to swindle his way to a room and food.
Charles tells Ingram to look at him and asks if he doesn't know a Stuart when he sees one.
As more Roundheads arrive, Charles escapes barely by taking the actor's horse when the Roundheads pull him off it, but not before telling Katie he will be back the next day. Much to Katie's surprise, Ingram tells her who Charles really is.
She follows Charles to a windmill for hiding, here they announce their love for one another. Ingram and his men have followed Katie, however, so Charles sends her away and draws attention to himself.
He and Ingram have a sword fight in the windmill and when Ingram's sword breaks, Charles throws his own sword away  and they wrestle during which Charles pushes Ingram to his death.
By now Charles' followers have arrived and he is informed that England wants him to come back without any conditions - God save the king.

Now what will become of Katie's and Charles' love?
His advisor tells him that he belongs to the country, not himself.
Katie and Charles talk, but they know they can't be together. It's a very sad and romantic farewell with a last desperate embrace before King Charles II. steps outside to meet his people.

What do you know about Charles?
When his father, Charles I., was executed in 1649 under Cromwell and the Parlamentarians (I can't help hearing the Monty Python song which has been my cell phone alarm clock tone for a long time), he indeed had to flee the country and spent years in exile.
After Cromwell died, his son Richard took over, but resigned shortly after. Finally a new Parliament asked Charles back to reinstate the monarchy - therefore the term Restoration for this time - after he had made several promises including cooperation with the Parliament.
Again I can't help hearing a song, this time from "Horrible Histories" - "The King of Bling".



Indeed, Charles is also known as "The Merry Monarch", not only because he lifted Puritan restrictions, but because pleasure was an important keyword during his reign, very much including his own which for example shows in the number of his illegitimate children (most of them acknowledged) with his many mistresses, official and unofficial, while he didn't have any children from his marriage.
So yeah, it doesn't sound as if he would have loved Katie forever 😉
I'll leave it to you to look him up if you want to know what else he did and how good a king he was because that would really lead too far here. It's quite the story including the Great Fire of London.

To the movie itself.
It was based on the 1926 novel "His Majesty the King" by Cosmo Hamilton which you can read here if you feel the need. Douglas Fairbanks jr. bought the rights to the novel in 1941. After returning from World War II, he founded his own film studio, The Fairbanks Company.
"The Exile" was announced to be the studio's first movie.

I'm not very demanding in regards to movie quality in image and sound, but I really wish it would have been better because the movie would have been even more fun.
Yes, fun. Don't take it as a history lesson because you will be disappointed, just take it as a fun movie for being "adventuresome, romantic and humorous", just as announced by the "producer-actor". Don't complain about the costumes not being perfect for the period, just look at how good our hero looks in them. He definitely does, you know, and this is the right movie to develop a crush on him if you don't have one already (which is one reason why I wish the quality had been better).
I'd say he did his father proud jumping through windows and on horses, sword fighting, and smiling irresistibly - and the torn shirt after the final fight ... 'nuff said.
The movie feels very much like a homage to Fairbanks sr. which I feel is helped by it not being filmed in color despite Fairbanks jr.'s wishes, and the icing on the cake is that the son used the sword of the father which was given to him by his associate in The Fairbanks Company who had worked with the senior and had owned the sword since 1930.
Oh yeah, and by the way, not just producer-actor, Fairbanks jr. actually co-wrote this movie. As mentioned before, he was an Anglophile, and he isn't the only one who thought Charles II. made for a good story.

Some say the movie is moving at a snail's pace, too much talk, too little action, but I wasn't bored at all.
If you want a slow story about Charles II., try "Royal Escape" by Georgette Heyer. As much as I love my Heyer books, as much I have to agree with one reviewer "He flees and flees and flees ....". I'm digressing, sorry.

So the set (all built on soundstages) looked quite artificial at times, especially the strange trees without any branches around their trunks, the trees with the glued on (?) blossoms or the tulips, but hey, so what? I found that more amusing than annoying and in some scenes it had something dreamlike, especially if there's fog.

So the love story isn't a wild, passionate one, but more on the tender side. I didn't mind that because it was clear from the beginning that there wouldn't be a happy ending for them.
Was Countess Anabella more fun? Well, she would have been, wouldn't she? Katie was a hard working young lady worrying about her debt, Anabella looked much more like one of the ladies Charles could have had a party with, and still he fell for Katie. I actually thought that was rather sweet.

Now I could try to talk about the mood director Max Ophüls (credited as Opuls in his US films) created with his takes, but I think it has been done much better already in some of the sources I added to this post. Why did Maria Montez get top billing? See the sources. Why did the movie have two different endings for the US (a shorter one) and elsewhere? See the sources. Both endings are included on YouTube, by the way.

Time to wrap this up.
If you are in for a bit of adventure and fun with a splash of romance thrown in, go for it and watch The Exile. I put it on my re-watch list myself.
What a pity it's not available on DVD!


Selected sources:

Wikipedia articles on The Exile and Charles II.

The Cairns Post, Sept. 10, 1946, page 6

Showmen's Trade Review, May 10, 1947, page 39

The Exile on IMDb

Meher Tatna: Restored by HFPA - "The Exile" (1947), posted on "Golden Globes", June 28, 2022

The Exile: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Carries on the Legacy of His Father, posted on "Prince of Hollywood", June 5, 2016

The Exile on Letterboxd