Monsieur Beaucaire (1924 film)
Monsieur Beaucaire | |
---|---|
Directed by | Sidney Olcott |
Screenplay by | Forrest Halsey (Scenario) |
Based on | Monsieur Beaucaire by Booth Tarkington Monsieur Beaucaire by Booth Tarkington and Evelyn Greenleaf Sutherland |
Produced by | Sidney Olcott |
Starring | Rudolph Valentino Bebe Daniels Lois Wilson |
Cinematography | Harry Fischbeck |
Edited by | Patricia Rooney |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 106 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
Box office | $3.5 million (U.S. and Canada rentals)[1] |
Monsieur Beaucaire is a 1924 American
Plot
The Duke of
Cast
- Rudolph Valentino as Duke de Chartres / Beaucaire
- Bebe Daniels as Princess Henriette
- Queen Marie of France
- Doris Kenyon as Lady Mary
- Louis XV of France
- Paulette Duval as Madame de Pompadour
- Richelieu
- Oswald Yorke as Miropoix
- Flora Finch as Duchess of Montmorency
- Louis Waller as François
- Ian MacLaren as Duke of Winterset
- Frank Shannon as Badger
- Templar Powell as Molyneux
- H. Cooper Cliffe as Beau Nash
- Lord Chesterfield
- Yvonne Hughes as Duchess of Flauhaut
- Harry Lee as Voltaire
- Colombine
- Blanche Craig as Ball Guest at Bath
- Nat Pendleton as Barber
Production notes
Monsieur Beaucaire was produced by Famous Players–Lasky, directed by Sidney Olcott, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It was filmed at Kaufman Astoria Studios in New York City.[2]
For this film, whose action is set at the court of King Louis XV of France, the atmosphere is resolutely French and French-speaking. It is French dancer
Reception
Monsieur Beaucaire was part of a series of box office and critical disappointments that plagued Valentino mid-career. Although the film did fairly well in big cities, it flopped in smaller locales, and could not exceed the expensive budget Olcott put into the film's production.[4] Historians Kevin Brownlow and John Kobal suggested that the film's shortcomings stemmed more from Olcott's "pedestrian" direction.[5]
Much of the blame for the film's alleged shortcomings was assigned to Valentino's wife Natacha Rambova who was felt by many of Valentino's colleagues to have had an undue influence on the costumes, set and direction of the film. Alicia Annas wrote that audiences were most likely alienated by the general design of the film which, while historically accurate, was not tailored to 1920s American filmgoers' tastes.[6] The Stan Laurel parody Monsieur Don't Care (1924) reflected the general public attitude toward Monsieur Beaucaire.[citation needed]
Adaptations
The novel Monsieur Beaucaire was adapted into a musical film, Monte Carlo (1930), directed by Ernst Lubitsch.[7] The story was filmed again as a comedy, directed by George Marshall and starring Bob Hope and Joan Caulfield, also called Monsieur Beaucaire (1946).
The 1951 biopic Valentino, produced by Columbia Pictures, directed by Lewis Allen with Anthony Dexter, includes a sequence dedicated to Monsieur Beaucaire.
A long sequence dedicated to Monsieur Beaucaire appears in the 1977 film Valentino (1977), directed by Ken Russell, with Rudolf Nureyev in the title role and John Justin in the role of Sidney Olcott.[8]
References
- ^ "All-Time Film Rental Champs". Variety. October 15, 1990. p. M172.
- ^ a b "Progressive Silent Film List: Monsieur Beaucaire". silentera.com.
- ^ "Sidney Olcott - Blog". www.sidneyolcott.com.
- ^ "Valentino Timeline". Archived from the original on March 27, 2008. Retrieved March 15, 2008.
- ISBN 0-394-50851-3
- ^ Annas, Alicia (org. Edward Maeder). Hollywood and History: Costume Design in Film. Thames and Hudson and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. p. 54.
- ^ "Is my classic movie collection covered by Florida home insurance?". Class Act Ins. January 24, 2019.
- ^ "Monsieur Beaucaire". www.sidneyolcott.com.
External links
- Monsieur Beaucaire at IMDb
- Monsieur Beaucaire at AllMovie
- Monsieur Beaucaire web site dedicated to Sidney Olcott (in French)
- Stills at silenthollywood.com
- Monsieur Beaucaire on YouTube