Scaramouche [DVD]

Good cast, pleasant ending.

HAVING THIS MOVIE FROM MY HIGH SCOOL DAYS IS GREAT. I WATCH MY MOVIES AT HOME.

Many months ago, a friend of mine made me and a few other friends see the trailer for this movie. We thought it was hilarious with all the dramatic "Scaramouche!"s, and we said we'd watch it.Now, at least six months later, we finally did.It was very different than we'd been expecting. More action, a very interesting plotline, etc. The plot could definitely have been fleshed out a bit more... a lot of side characters felt very underdeveloped, but the movie was so action packed that I can understand why they chose not to slow it down. Despite the fast pace, we were able to understand what was happening (although a friend who'd seen it already certainly helped). Some of the lines fell a bit flat, but overall the experience of watching the movie was great, so I've given it 5 stars.There was rather more sexual content than I would have liked (my family kept coming into the room at all the wrong moments...) but nothing horrible. The scene where Andre and Lenore are fighting with pots was just a bit much, but other than that it was okay.The ending had us all screaming at the movie (didn't help, sadly). I wasn't thrilled with it (it didn't give a good sense of closure, and it just felt wrong), but realizing that the guy at the end was Napoleon almost made up for it.So... 5 stars overall, because it was just a great movie. The epic sword fight was...well, epic. The duels were generally pretty awesome, although Phillippe's (I just butchered his name, didn't I) death was ridiculous. The swordplay generally looked real, although I felt Andre's rapid progress was just a bit silly (the other guy had been practicing for decades and was better than anyone else in the country... two months is just not long enough).I have so far read just one chapter of the book, but I can already tell that it is VERY diifferent than the movie. If you're looking for a faithful adaptation, this probably isn't for you. It also doesn't really concentrate on the French Revolution (probably because of the aforementioned pacing... I don't think there was a single dull moment in the movie except possibly for Aline's first appearance, which turned funny very quickly). It's also very heavy on repetition- duels, the same play over and over again, etc., but always with a new twist that makes the scene worth it.As I said above, there is some sexual content, although younger children will probably miss it altogether (except for some kissing, it's mostly just implied). My friends and I (13-15) thoroughly enjoyed this movie.

A classic movie that has not aged at all. Scaramouche is just as entertaining today as it must have been when it was made. It is a timeless gem of a movie.The story will draw you in, the action will thrill you, and the good-looking cast will charm you. Stewart Grainger is Andre Moreau, the bastard son of a nobleman. He swore to avenge the murder of his friend, played by a very young Richard Anderson (Oscar, from the Six Million Dollar Man show), at the hands of the skilled swordsman, Noel de Maynes. The youthful Phillipe de Valmorin (Anderson) has been spreading talks of revolution under the name of "Marcus Brutus". The Queen orders her cousin, Noel de Maynes, to find the man behind Marcus Brutus and kill him. The great actor, Mel Ferrer, played the deadly swordsman Marquis de Maynes in what is perhaps his most memorable role. The path to revenge is not always straight and simple. For try as he might, Moreau continually falls short of beating Noel de Maynes and only escapes with his life through luck and the interference of two resourceful women. Having lost his lavish allowance, Moreau is forced to take to the stage and perform at night. By day, he devotes his time to perfect his fencing skills.Eleanor Parker and a young Janet Leigh play the leading ladies. Both women are in love with Andre Moreau and their subtle interference keeps him alive despite the danger that he constantly puts himself in. Through their political games they kept the more skilled de Maynes from crossing swords with Moreau.This is a love story with some of the best fencing scenes ever put into a movie. The final duel between Moreau and de Maynes is epic and regarded as the best sword fight ever filmed. Stewart Grainger and Mel Ferrer were both at the top of their game. Eleanor Parker, already a famous actress, carried her part well as the talented actress in a traveling show of stage entertainers. Janet Leigh was very young here but her beauty and talent shined as Aline, the aristocrat that Moreau falls in love with halfway through the movie. Henry Wilcoxon, another tall, athletic actor, played a soldier under the command of the Marquis de Maynes.Highly recommended.

The first one I got was damage in the mail, but the second one was in perfect condition. Thank you Amazon.

Well made film in the fashion of Zorro or The Scarlet Pimpernel. Good performances, great final sword fight, beautiful costumes.

Que tienen un duelo de esgrima increíble.

Stupendo film

On n'a pas fait mieux depuis ! , quelle harmonie d'ensemble , beaucoup de panache , un style enlevé , et il n'y a , à mon sens , aucune trace de superflu en un quelconque endroit de ce film .Tout se tient ! de superbes costumes , aucun anachronisme particulier .. , (comme semble vouloir le souligner certains commentaires) un tantinet désuets et qui semble faire un peu trop la fine bouche ...ALLONS DONC, nous ne sommes pas là pour faire dans la demi mesure ..; Car il s'agit tout de même de l'une des perles rare du cinéma des années cinquante , un joyau parmi les plus authentiques que le Technicolor nous ait jamais offert !!! ..Voyons voir .. , des décors sublimes , de très beaux éclairages , réhaussés par des ambiances variées , faisant ressortir à merveille les situations ... Georges Sidney parvient à merveille à intégrer toutes les composantes du scénario , et à les mettre en perspective à l'écran avec un savoir faire qui n'appartient décidément qu'à lui !!! .. Comme c'était le cas quelques années auparavant , avec la meme réussite que pour les "3 mousquetaires" (Gene Kelly, Vincent Price,Lana Turner..) , il réussit en 1952 à mettre en forme avec un extraordinnaire sens esthétique , les aventures d 'André Moreau "Alias" Scaramouche !!! , Saltimbanque et comédien de son état .... personnage bon , généreux , héroique et hautement attachant !!!Moments dramatiques , courage , humour, séduction, romantisme , duels, intensité , grandeur d'ame , amours et deceptions, surprises , et esprit chevaleresque , faux semblants..., arrogances , moments d' insouciances ,petits calculs et grandes bravoures !!!!! Il y a tellement dans ce film !stewart Granger trouve ici un role en "or" massif , escrimeur de talent , tout autant à la vie qu'à l'écran , ... il nous en met ici plein la vue , et crève littéralement l'écran , magnifique , rigoureux quand il s'agit d'une situation dramatique , enjoué quand il s'agit d'affaires de coeur , véritable athlète quand il s'agit de manier l'épée ... il est ici dans la quintescence de son art , ..l'art dramatique !!! nous démontrant, l'air de rien , toute l'étendue de son talent d'acteur ... Ah oui , ça alors , des acteurs comme ça , on n'en trouve pas tous les jours .. .. !!!! à n'en pas douter un acteur qui possédait une classe inoubliable !!! , et tellement d'élégance !!!Et comment oublier Mel Ferrer ,ici déployant une finesse dans son jeu qui est d'une rare subtilité , il met dans le role du Marquis de Maine , tellement d'insolence , d'arrogance face aux gens du peuple, qu'il ignore et dédaigne , tout autant qu'il se complait à séduire les gens de pouvoir et les nobles de plus haut rang que lui !!! espérant par là même continuer son ascension toujours plus haut .. .. et continuer à impressionner ... usant de son rang et de son titre , usant de son statue de noble(on peut entrevoir une habile mais non caricaturale critique de la royauté ou bien des exagérations des attributs du pouvoir et des privilèges ).Georges Sidney utilisant à merveille son scénario et par l'intermédiaire du role du Marquis de Maine , n'hésite donc pas le moins du monde à écharper un peu , les idées préconçues sur les privilèges et les droits considérés comme naturels pour une certaine et "hypothétique.." haute société de l'époque , la part de vérité historique dans tout cela ??...Certes il y avait la noblesse et "les roturiers" , il faut donc tout de même penser que les différences de classes entre l'aristocratie et le peuple devaient etre sans doute encore bien plus marquées que dans le film . Ainsi , l'aspiration à la "liberté égalité fraternité" est bien présente et explicité dès le début du film , et ce , d'assez belle façon !Mais disons , que Scaramouche reste un très beau et très astucieux divertissement , et d'un point de vue de la véracité sociologique ou historique il ne faut tout de même pas trop lui en demander !! .. mais bon !!! .. il y a là dedans un bon brin de réflexion quand même !!!Ainsi , les évènements sont sensés se dérouler peu avant avant la révolution..... Marquis n'étant pas un échelon très élevé dans la hiérarchie de la noblesse , Le Marquis de Maine se doit d'impressionner toujours plus .. .. encore et encore .. De Maine use donc de ses très grands talents d'escrimeur , sortant son épée sans l'once d'une hésitation ... recevant encore et toujours les approbations des "instances du pouvoir" ... inssatiable ... espérant, peut etre grimper les échelons encore et encore ...Pour ce qui est bien sur de l'essentiel : Scaramouche est un des film les plus éblouissant qui soit, coloré , sans temps mort, avec une la narration qui ne souffre jamais d'un manque d'à propos . Comme c'est souvent le cas chez Georges Sidney , les dialogues sont excellents tout autant , qu 'une musique d'un romantisme échevelée !!! souligne merveilleusement chacune des scènes et rythme l'action !!!Pour ce qui est des roles féminins, les femmes , d'une superbe féminité : Radieuses , fières et entreprenantes , complices , elles échaffaudent des plans pour solutionner les situations !!! elles ne sont pas montrés en simples potiches égarées ,elles imaginent le futur . Eleonor Parker est fantastique, sublime , ... et on en oublierait presque la très belle Janet leigh , qui tient ici un de ses plus beau rôle !!Totalement: de part en part ce film est d'une splendeur imcomparable !!!! et véritablement le procédé TECHNICOLOR est employé a son meilleur !!!! rarement des couleurs ont semblées aussi "parfaite". Magique ! Et encore une fois quelle musique .....Ahhhhh !!!! ... et puis cette scène finale , un veritable ballet !!!, chorégraphié de main de maitre , regardez donc un peu ces quelques derniers plans du duel final , quelle MAESTRIA !!!Il y a des Chef d'Oeuvres dans l'histoire du cinéma ... Mais il est parfois des films dont on se dit qu' ils sont uniques et irremplaçables !!! et Scaramouche est bien un de ceux là !!!MAIS C'EST BIEN SUR : c'est bien SCARAMOUCHE !!!! THE ONE AND ONLY ......!

This two disc edition emanates from France, and comprises the Stewart Granger film of 1952, together with the (longer) silent version of 1923 directed by Rex Ingram, an interesting account of the film's background by Mel Ferrer, and a forty minute French documentary about the swashbuckling genre, or as the French term it, "film de cape et d'epee". For the features, French titles can be removed, and there are the full original English inter-titles for the silent film, but regrettably the documentary is in French alone. The print quality of the 1952 George Sydney film on these discs has been praised elsewhere, as superior to any dvd prints of the title released in UK or America, and without having seen others, to my eyes the quality is outstanding. But, so also is the visual quality of Ingram's film, a film with truly impressive, varied and detailed set design, compositional design which recalls the best of Griffith, and a splendid orchestral score with all of the required dash and verve. Although the two films derive from the same Rafael Sabatini novel, and share the same outline ( and share an actor in common, Lewis Stone), they do differ considerably when it comes to narrative details and the pacing of events. In terms of colour (literal and metaphorical), energy, life, excitement, movement, Sydney's film comes out on top, and shows us a remarkable number of fencing duels, executed convincingly and skilfully, if without the added impetus of an accompanying musical score such as augments Flynn's famous duel in The Sea Hawk. The last of these was reputedly the longest ever committed to film, and is up there with the very best. If Janet Leigh, as the nominal heroine, turns in a performance which at times seems as pallid as her white hair and costuming, Eleanor Powell, red hair flaming in fights comparable with those on-screen between John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, proves herself the real, if at times hard-jawed, heroine of the film, voluble, energetic, vivacious and unafraid of the most compromising of antics on and off stage. If Sydney's film aims for lively, rumbustious humour, vigour and excitement, Ingram's is a more stately affair, scrupulous in its presentation of historical processes (the French Revolution), details, and personalities. Napoleon briefly appears in each: in Sydney's film he is a corpulent, inflated figure knowingly eying an attractive woman - a director's wink at the audience - but in Ingram's he is a lean, ascetic, calculating figure waiting for his historical moment,who seems to be about to stride into Abel Gance's film of his early life. Historical processes hardly figure in Sydney's film, whilst they are at the heart of Ingram's, and figures like Danton and Robespierre appear amidst an endless succession of huge, detailed and superbly photographed sets and locations, here in a beautiful print. The concern for historical accuracy and detail, together with a much more complex set of events and relationships than in the later version, slows the pace of this film relative to its successor, and it is true also that the principals here all play with rather more reserve, less swash and buckle, than Granger, Parker, and Ferrer: I felt that the film lost impetus occasionally, in its concern for historical fidelity, but these finally are minor carps set against the film's scale and brilliant direction, full of scenes which are fully the equal of those in Orphans of the Storm, and the more restrained passages of Gance's Napoleon. This pair of discs cannot be recommended too highly.

Having been disapointed with the Subtitles on "QUINTIN DURWARD" (sic) also from Korea, I was a bit apprehensive about this one. No need - Excellent transfer 4.3 ratio, crisp picture, lovely colour, good sound and excellent clear Subtitles. So if you need subs then this hard to track down (on Amazon) is the one to get. Sadly though I found the film itself less than the exciting adventure I thought I remembered. Nearly 2 hours long there are scenes that seemed to drag on, and there was way too much of the theatre show which I felt slowed things up even more. Of course there is action - Chases and duels, which brings me nicely to my final negative thought. (MINOR SPOILER) The final sword fight was too long, too preposterous and without any music! Remember Flynn and Rathbone's epics and the stirring music that accompanied them? This fight would have benefitted from Victor Young having a hand so to speak, and as for the ending itself.... Nuff said. Granger is marvellous, just right at romance, comedy and buckling a swash. Janet Leigh is gorgeous though makes no attempt at an accent. Mel Ferrare is a splendid villain. Great support cast and I ackowledge I am probably in a minority of one with my criticisms. Great transfer. Fair film. FOUR stars (P.S. Anyone else think Eleanor Parker badly miscast???)