The Swan (1956)

Director:

Charles Vidor

Writers:

Ferenc Molnár (play)
John Dighton (writer)

Release Date:

26 April 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance | Drama

Plot:

Princess Beatrice's days of enjoying the regal life are numbered unless her only daughter, Princess Alexandra...

Plot Keywords:

Tutor | Princess | Prince | Aunt Nephew Relationship | Fictional Country

Cast

Grace Kelly	...	Princess Alexandra
Alec Guinness	...	Prince Albert
Louis Jourdan	...	Dr. Nicholas Agi
Agnes Moorehead	...	Queen Maria Dominika
Jessie Royce Landis	...	Princess Beatrix
Brian Aherne	...	Father Carl Hyacinth
Leo G. Carroll	...	Caesar
Estelle Winwood	...	Symphorosa
Van Dyke Parks	...	George
Christopher Cook	...	Arsene
Robert Coote	...	Capt. Wunderlich
Doris Lloyd	...	Countess Sibenstoyn
Edith Barrett	...	Elsa - Beatrix's Maid

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System) | 4-Track Stereo

Certification:

Australia:G | Finland:S | USA:Approved (certificate #17860) | West Germany:6

Filming Locations:

Biltmore Estate - 1 Approach Road, Asheville, North Carolina, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

The only film in which Grace Kelly plays a princess (she later became one in real life). In this film, she is courted by Prince Albert of a small European country. Prince Albert of Monaco is Grace Kelly's son.

Quotes:

Prince Albert: Your father used to call you his swan, so I am told. I think that's a good thing to remember. Think what it means to be a swan. To glide like a dream on the smooth surface of the lake, and never go to the shore. On dry land, where ordinary people walk, the swan is awkward, even ridiculous. When she waddles up the bank she painfully resembles a different kind of bird, n'est-ce-pas?

Movie Connections:

Version of One Romantic Night (1930)

Kelly's Swansong

MGM delved deep into it's back catalogue to find a fitting subject with which to cash in on Grace Kelly's impending royal marriage, and came up with this bygone relic from the silent era.

That the movie was outdated even in the mid-fifties is undeniable - these kind of movies were, for the most part, typical of 30's and 40's Hollywood - not an era in which Presley was swivelling his hips, and the space race had begun in earnest. At the very least, this movie would seem to have been more suited to the light-musical treatment rather than the uneasy mix of comedy and drama with which the audience is presented.

Nevertheless, the movie starts promisingly with the accent on comedy for the first 45 minutes or so. Guinness makes Prince Albert a highly likeable character initially, although his character becomes darker as the film progresses, and his motives questionable (watch his face as he studies Princess Alexandra after making his poignant speech at the end of the movie to see what I mean). Unfortunately, both Kelly's and Jourdan's characters are one-dimensional puppets who quickly become tiresome as the more dramatic aspects of the plot take over and the film begins to drag.

I did like the movie's ending very much; it's refreshingly original and somewhat downbeat for it's era and genre.