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Prince of Foxes

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If passionate love, convivial betrayals and loyalty one can change as quickly as one's shirt intrigues you, you'll most likely enjoy Prince of Foxes. If nothing else, you'll learn a great party trick that involves two eyeballs and two thumbs. Prince of Foxes, in my view, is one of the best of the Tyrone Power adventure films. It stands out in part because we find ourselves operating in the lusty, double-dealing world of Cesare Borgia. And while Orson Welles, who plays Borgia, can't resist slicing the ham with gusto, it must be admitted that he brings a lot of joie de vivre to villainy.

Andrea Orsini (Tyrone Power) is one of Borgia's clever lieutenants. He's smart, charming, deadly with a blade and almost as opportunistic as his master. As Borgia says when describing the kind of man he needs for a mission to Ferrara to undermine the duke there, "who but a man as quick at deceit as a fox? He must have the grace of a dancer, the wrist of an assassin. He must have little regard for good faith, yet by his astuteness be able to confuse men's minds....He must charm as a snake charms birds, yet he must make no friends, except for those who may be of use to him, and for the same reason although he may make use of love, he must not love." His mission to Ferrara a success, Orsini is sent by Borgia to secure the fortified Citte del Monte, ruled by the aged and honorable Count Verano (Felix Aylmer) and his much younger wife, the Countess Camilla (Wanda Hendrix). Orsini brings with him the unscrupulous and deadly rogue Mario Belli (Everett Sloane). Poor Andrea Orsini. As he witnesses wisdom and humanity, as for probably the first time in his life he begins to feel an honorable love, and as he knows Cesare Borgia will soon arrive with an army to demand the capitulation of Citte del Monte, he discovers that most uncomfortable of feelings...a conscience. Before long a good man will die, love will blossom, a great battle will be fought, a rescue from a dungeon will be planned and executed, the difference between conscienceless nobility and the nobility of the soul will be pointed out to us, and two eyeballs will be put in danger.

The movie, filmed in Italy, is briskly paced and well photographed. The battle scene is a rouser, with fat, stubby cannons blasting away. Great wooden trebuchets hurl stones and flaming balls of pitch into the city. Vats of boiling oil are tipped over onto Borgia's soldiers as they try to scale the city's walls. The screenplay is studded with clever, cynical observations about love, diplomacy and war. Unlike so many adventure movies, there really is no dud acting in Prince of Thieves. Even Wanda Hendrix manages the role of Camilla with enough dignity to win us over. The cast of featured players is strong, with solid performances by Felix Aylmer, Marina Berti as a cousin of Cesare who has her eye on Orsini, Katina Paxinou as Orsini's peasant mother and, especially, that first-rate actor Everett Sloane as Mario Belli. He went to Hollywood from the Mercury Theater with Welles and appeared notably in Welles' Citizen Kane and The Lady from Shanghai. He gets perhaps the best lines in the movie: "I discovered that the devil doesn't always pay best. This whole thing pleases me. Who betrayed who and where did it start? No matter. It shall be said among my fellow practitioners in double-dealing that I was the greatest of them all."

But what of Cesare Borgia? The movie implies that the forces of justice will rise up one day and smight him. In fact, Borgia was the illegitimate son of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, who became Pope Alexander VI. When his father became Pope, Borgia's career as a military conqueror blossomed. When the Pope died, Cesare discovered all his old friends quickly found new men to fawn over. After being imprisoned once or twice, he made his way to Spain, where he was killed in a battle against French forces most people have long forgotten.

The DVD features a black-and-white transfer which is in good shape, even in most of the night scenes. There are a few light-weight extras that I didn't sample. For those who like Hollywood movie music, it's possible to play the score without the dialogue.

And for those who enjoy reading as well as watching, the movie is based on the book by Samuel Shellabarger. It holds up reasonably well. Shellabarger, a professor of English at Princeton when he died, wrote four best-selling historical novels. Two were made into movies, this one and The Captain from Castile, which also stars Power.

Prince of Foxes: The Best-Selling Historical Epic

1949's Prince of Foxes is splendid fun, and smart with it. Rather than his usual noble avenging hero, Tyrone Power gets a much grittier role as Andrea Orsini, an unscrupulous soldier of fortune determined to advance in Cesare Borgia's court by any means necessary. In this pit of vipers, everyone is a duplicitous s***, wit is vicious (especially when dealt out by Welles), knowledge is always a good investment and everything, even death, can be turned into profit. For Borgia (Orson Welles at his best), "The great know only one law - the outcome justifies the act," and, boasting the appetite for greatness no matter what the cost, Orsini readily jumps at the chance to get ahead by agreeing to kill a rival count and seduce his wife so that Borgia may enter his land "through a bedroom" without the necessity for a battle. Naturally, with a character this corrupt played by the studio's biggest star it's inevitable that Orsini is going to have a date with redemption and double cross his boss for love and a new found sense of honor and purpose, but the film doesn't lose it's sense of devious fun doing it thanks to a sharp script by Milton Krims. Like Captain From Castile, based on a novel by Samuel Shellabarger, this is an altogether more successful adaptation, not least because it doesn't stint on the immorality and violence and follows the story to a satisfying conclusion.

Power's at his best here, clearly welcoming the chance to add more shade to his usual swashbuckling heroes and more than up to the challenge. It's a pity that the story doesn't allow Welles more screen time: he's having so much wry fun dispensing wicked wisdom here that he fully justifies director Henry King's eagerly pursuit of him for the role despite admitting that "putting his name on the marquee of a theatre is the same as putting the word smallpox up." His old Mercury Players cohort Everett Sloane provides excellent honest duplicity as Orsini's would-be assassin and subsequent sidekick, casting a welcome shadow over the proceedings whenever goodness looks like it might take hold. While it's a shame the film wasn't shot in Technicolor to take advantage of the glorious location photography - possibly because the extra lights then needed for colour work wouldn't have done the frescoes and artworks much good - the black and white cinematography does make effective use of far from romantic moonlit canals and dark Venetian alleys. Rather terrific.

Extras on the region 1 NTSC DVD include a Movietone news extract od Power's Italian wedding, an isolated score track for Alfred Newman's acclaimed score, stills and advertising gallery and a Spanish trailer.

I am happy to see the DVD release of Prince of Foxes. This movie is a gem I first encountered years ago on the midday movie channel and I've loved it ever since. Tyrone Power plays an impostor posing as a nobleman in the service of Cesare Borgia. Sent to subvert a castle town that stands in the way of Borgia's ambition to rule central Italy, Power falls in love with the young duchess who rules the place and determines to oppose his old boss and defend the town. The town falls, Power is revealed to be a mere peasant, but that's not all there is to the story...

Prince of Foxes is full of romance, intrigue, treachery, loyalty, honor, and adventure. It's a must for any swashbuckling collection.

Wanda Hendrix the the light weight starlet here. She was married to someone (can't remember now) semi famous.(Audie Murphy?) She ruins the picture for me and cannot play the love interest to the handsome, dashing Tyrone Power. Welles is always good and played with Tyrone in the Black Rose.

Enjoyable movies of another place and time. Not full of 4 letter words and explicit bedroom scenes. Romantic and entertaining.

Here is a thinking person's historical swashbuckler, very satisfying and enjoyable and full of ironic wit. Welles is in the zone here and Ty seems to relish his chance to play an anti-heroic lead ala Nightmare Alley. Plus, Everett Sloane is loosed on a major role and relishes ever minute.

The location shooting as well as the stark yet rich B&W cinematography may put you in mind of later Welles' films including his Othello and Chimes at Midnight. There's also a cool touch of having burning oiled poured off a battlement splashing up on the lens, as well as the subjective eye-gouging scene.

Muy buena película de aventuras, de gran ritmo, y unos escenarios de fondo bellísimos, con gran belleza plástica. Tyrone Power, como siempre, con un papel lleno de matices, sobrio y excelente. Los extras de la edición en DVD son muy curiosos para los mitómanos, que los apreciarán como un tesoro.

I agree with the general tone of the above reviews. Indeed, Welles proved once again his extraordinary thespian ability. However, I'm glad it wasn't filmed in color, which I have always considered appropriate for musicals and travelogues. For nuance, mood and character, you can't beat B&W. I'm sorry, but for some reason color seems to shift the emphasis more from highbrow to lowbrow art, providing less opportunity for the creative cinematographer. Please forgive my foppish airs, but you gotta respect my old gray head. Another thing: as my creaky old brain seems to recall, when I saw the film in '49 everyone in the theatre gasped at the eye gouging scene, and Sloane's subterfuge was explained in flashback. Can anyone set the record straight with some certainty?

"Prince of Foxes" was one of Tyrone Powers' best performances. Orson Welles was superb as "Cesare Borgia"....the supporting cast....led by Everett Sloan made this little known "Classic". Worth every penny.

The swashbucking movies were truly the best, good clean entertainment and Tyrone I think really made good quality films.

This is Tyrone Power at his very best! The story is historically fascinating and based on Italian ancient history. Really fun! I recommended it!