Customer Reviews

Scaramouche

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While the 1952 version can't match Rex Ingram's incredibly lavish 1923 silent version for sheer spectacle, it has to be said that in most other respects the original Scaramouche doesn't measure up to its successor. Roman Novarro's Scaramouche certainly doesn't seem to have been born with the gift of laughter, spending most of the film brooding instead of swashing buckles. Here he's more of a revolutionary firebrand, with more of an emphasis on the political side of the period leading up to the Revolution, but it's also a much more unfocussed narrative, with the story crawling as Andre drifts between the various roles fate casts him in. It suffers from a much weaker villain in Lewis Stone, more of a nuisance than a threat despite the actor's best efforts (though it is amusing when he's unable to recall a wench who presents him with his illegitimate son), and Alice Terry's leading lady is a far less appealing proposition than his co-star on the stage. Costing Metro Pictures (soon to be the key player in Metro Goldwyn Mayer) an estimated $858,723, the money's always on the screen with some of the incredible spectacle that all but died out with the advent of talkies (unlike the elegant use of space in the National Assembly set of the remake, the one here is packed to the rafters), even throwing in a Revolutionary epilogue to see divine (or rather proletarian) justice meted out to the villain. But the end result tends to feel like a film trying to pack too much in to compensate for a story that isn't quite dramatic enough or quite as smoothly flowing as it should be, tending to work more in fits and starts rather than as a whole.

Part of Warner Archive's DVD-R range in the US, it's actually included as an extra in the French PAL 2-disc DVD special edition of the 1952 version (which also includes a sadly unsubtitled documentary on the film as well as a trailer gallery), and that's easily the best way to get it: while a solo purchase may disappoint, as a bonus feature it's well worth it despite its flaws.