With its lavish appointments and its excessively theatrical scene-stealing from Peter Ustinov and Robert Morley as the silly Prince of Wales and his even sillier father King George III, "Beau Brummel" is not as bad as you might expect
The rooms look authentic, and, when Ustinov is jabbering some nonsense as the trivial, vain, empty monarch to be, the film even sounds authentic
As Lady Patricia, Taylor is allowed to move on a sea of romantic indecision She must choose between the impetuous adventurer and a serious court Politician A little bourgeoise at heart, she makes her choice finally for the harbor rather than the tempest
The movie is based on Clyde Fitch's play, but with a pallid Stewart Granger as the widely known sartorial dandy, the focus is wisely shifted to the crazy Regent Ustinov's Regent has more glamor than Granger's soldier of fortune, and the movie becomes the story of the misguided, easily manipulated, finally rather pathetic Prince of Wales rather than a showcase for the skill and panache of Captain Beau Brummell
As a character study of fashion-crazed royalty, Bernhardt's film is pompously entertaining; as romance, or as insight into the historical Beau himself, the movie is impoverished Granger and his leading lady are responsible for the dead weight that surrounds Ustinov's spirited silliness
The rich, willful Taylor contained intimations of the Southern belles to follow, but even at her maturity, in "A Place in the Sun" or "The Last Time I Saw Paris," Liz had not fully awakened to the best that was in her
The rooms look authentic, and, when Ustinov is jabbering some nonsense as the trivial, vain, empty monarch to be, the film even sounds authentic
As Lady Patricia, Taylor is allowed to move on a sea of romantic indecision She must choose between the impetuous adventurer and a serious court Politician A little bourgeoise at heart, she makes her choice finally for the harbor rather than the tempest
The movie is based on Clyde Fitch's play, but with a pallid Stewart Granger as the widely known sartorial dandy, the focus is wisely shifted to the crazy Regent Ustinov's Regent has more glamor than Granger's soldier of fortune, and the movie becomes the story of the misguided, easily manipulated, finally rather pathetic Prince of Wales rather than a showcase for the skill and panache of Captain Beau Brummell
As a character study of fashion-crazed royalty, Bernhardt's film is pompously entertaining; as romance, or as insight into the historical Beau himself, the movie is impoverished Granger and his leading lady are responsible for the dead weight that surrounds Ustinov's spirited silliness
The rich, willful Taylor contained intimations of the Southern belles to follow, but even at her maturity, in "A Place in the Sun" or "The Last Time I Saw Paris," Liz had not fully awakened to the best that was in her