The Beloved Rogue (1927)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Alan Crosland

Writers:

Paul Bern (screenplay)
George Marion Jr. (titles) ...

Release Date:

12 March 1927 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | History | Romance

Plot:

François Villon, in his lifetime the most renowned poet in France, is also a prankster, an occasional criminal, and an ardent patriot.

Plot Keywords:

France | King | François Villon | Burgundy | Patriot

Cast

John Barrymore	...	François Villon
Conrad Veidt	...	King Louis XI
Marceline Day	...	Charlotte de Vauxcelles
Lawson Butt	...	Duke of Burgundy
Henry Victor	...	Thibault d'Aussigny
Slim Summerville	...	Jehan
Mack Swain	...	Nicholas
Angelo Rossitto	...	Beppo - the Dwarf
Nigel De Brulier	...	Astrologer
Lucy Beaumont	...	Villon's mother
Otto Matieson	...	Olivier (as Otto Mattiesen)
Jane Winton	...	The Abbess
Rose Dione	...	Margot
Bertram Grassby	...	Duke of Orleans
Dick Sutherland	...	Tristan l'Hermite

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent (musical score)

Certification:

Canada:G (Ontario)

Company:

Feature Productions

Trivia:

Film debut of Dickie Moore.

Quotes:

François Villon: Happy is Paris, where fools reign once a year - while everywhere else the fools reign all the time!

Movie Connections:

Version of The Oubliette (1914)

Two hams and some hard-boiled eggs

Superb silent version of the story of Francois Villon. Although remade in the thirties as IF I WERE KING, with Frank Lloyd directing, Preston Sturges scripting and Ronald Colman starring, this version is even better. Barrymore, with a cohort of comedians, plays the comic fool and the wine-depressed Villon with a verve that Colman could not match. The photography is startling in its beauty and innovation and the supporting cast, particularly Conrad Veidt in his American premiere, the incredibly beautiful Marceline Day, and the supporting comics, Slim Summerville and Hank Mann, steal every scene they are in.

It is a shame that Barrymore did so few first-rate comedies. Among his sound films, only his lead in TWENTIETH CENTURY and his supporting role in MIDNIGHT can compare to this, and those stand up only because of his superb voice. In this silent movie, Barrymore must tell his tale without benefit of words, and he does so, alternately hilariously unrecognizable as the King of the Fools and tenderly as Villon in love. He even gets to leap around in the swashbuckling style of Fairbanks, most convincingly. He also lets his supporting cast have their share of glory, capering in this ensemble work like any talented comic of the era.

Finally, a brief word about Alan Crosland, a director known today only for directing the first talking feature, THE JAZZ SINGER in the same year this was released. Crosland was a careful, innovative, delightfully original director, and it is a shame that more of his works are not known. Perhaps this movie, far more interesting as a movie than his best-known work, will be your introduction to his other talents. If so, you could do far worse.