La tulipe noire (1964)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Christian-Jaque

Writers:

Alexandre Dumas père (novel) and
Marcello Ciorciolini (additional story) ...

Release Date:

28 February 1964 (France)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy

Plot:

In 1789, when the Revolution went on, a bandit named "Black Tulip" held the surroundings of village Roussillon in fear...

Plot Keywords:

Bandit | Revolution | Black Tulip | Jewelry | Idealist

Cast

Alain Delon	...	Julien de Saint Preux / Guillaume de Saint Preux
Virna Lisi	...	Caroline 'Caro' Plantin
Adolfo Marsillach	...	Baron La Mouche
Dawn Addams	...	La marquise Catherine de Vigogne
Akim Tamiroff	...	Marquis de Vigogne
Laura Valenzuela	...	Lisette
George Rigaud	...	Intendant General / Chief of Police
Francis Blanche	...	Plantin
José Jaspe
Perla Cristal
José Luis Pellicena
Enrique Ávila
Álvaro de Luna
Robert Manuel	...	Prince Alexandre de Grasillach de Morvan Lobo
Yvan Chiffre		(as Ivan Chiffre)

Also Known As:

El tulipán negro (Spain)
Il tulipano nero (Italy)
The Black Tulip (UK)

Runtime:

115 min | Hungary:110 min | Spain:100 min | Argentina:113 min

Country:

France | Italy | Spain

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Portugal:M/12 | Finland:K-8 | Norway:A | Spain:T

Filming Locations:

Cáceres, Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain

Company:

Flora Film

Trivia:

The film bears no resemblance whatsoever with the novel by Dumas entitled "La tulipe noire".

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Zorro (1975/I)

Henri Jeanson's lines....

....,even when he's not at his best are always better than the rest.Although it's a swashbuckler,an action-packed story ,it's the kind of movie which loses much of its strength when watched dubbed .Released at the end of the swashbucklers era ,whose hero was most of the time Jean Marais ,"la tulipe noire" is more tongue in cheek,more picaresque,more libertine,closer to "Tom Jones " than "le bossu" or "le miracle des loups" .Christian-Jacques and Henri Jeanson wanted to match the scale and quality (and commercial success and critical acclaim) of their earlier and better "Fanfan la tulipe" (1951).In both works ,they take liberties with history and it's much fun:in "la tulipe noire" the characters know a priori that the 14th of July will be an important date ,they talk about revolution before the storming of the Bastille;and in the last pictures ,they say people will remember the 19th (!) of July.The villain (the evil prince who comes with his army to kill all the Parisians) about to be executed by the rebels says "I will remember my death all my life".

Alain Delon plays two parts ,twins ,and he's well cast as the dazzling heroes ,even if Jeanson deflates them a bit.Henri Decae' s cinematography is as splendid as ever.However the plot is sometimes confused and Philippe De Broca's "Cartouche" starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and released at the same time,is more rewarding .

NB:it has almost nothing to do with Alexandre Dumas's novel,which took place in Holland where the hero was trying to create a ...black tulip.