Monsieur Beaucaire *** (1924, Rudolph Valentino, Bebe Daniels, Lois Wilson, Ian Maclaren, Doris Kenyon) – Classic Movie Review 11,155

‘Never Has Valentino Been Such a Lover, Such a Dancer, Such a Swordsman, Such a Dashing, Handsome, Lovable Hero as You’ll See Him in This Master Photoplay.’

Producer-director Sidney Alcott’s 1924 Paramount Pictures black and white silent romantic historical drama film Monsieur Beaucaire stars Rudolph Valentino as the handsome royal Duke de Chartres, in unrequited love with Princess Henriette (Bebe Daniels) at the time of King Louis XV of France (Lowell Sherman) and Queen Marie (Lois Wilson).

When Princess Henriette rejects and insults him, he goes undercover to Bath, England, as Monsieur Beaucaire, the barber of the French Ambassador. Beaucaire catches the Duke of Winterset (Ian MacLaren) cheating at cards and blackmails him into introducing himself to the lovely Lady Mary (Doris Kenyon), who loses interest in him when he finds he is a mere barber.

The film is based on Booth Tarkington’s 1900 novel and the 1904 play by Tarkington and Evelyn Greenleaf Sutherland.

Monsieur Beaucaire is an extremely handsomely made and lavishly produced silent movie, and still very enjoyable and rather beautiful vehicle for a dashing Valentino, whose vivacious performance shines out like a beacon after all these years.

Set mostly at the court of King Louis XV of France, the film is historically accurate, with a painstaking French atmosphere. French dancer Paulette Duval appears as Madame de Pompadour in her second American film. The Belgian actor André Daven, playing the Duc de Nemours, the brother of the Duke de Chartres, was hired for his resemblance to Valentino. The Nantes-based Georges Barbier designed the 350 costumes.

The film’s dialogues were written in French for realism, and Valentino, Bebe Daniels as Princess Henriette and Lowell Sherman as King Louis XV of France speak French. Commendable though this all seems now, the film was clearly not tailored to American film-goers’ tastes in 1924 and paid a high price for this as a box office and critical disappointment.

The 1924 Stan Laurel silent comedy film parody Monsieur Don’t Care with Stan as Rhubarb Vaselino reflected the public attitude towards Monsieur Beaucaire, scoffing at Valentino’s heavy makeup, frilled attire and arch mannerisms, though the film was satirising such excesses of the court of Louis XV. At the time, a man with perfectly greased-back hair was called a Vaselino.

There were already rumours and press stories about Valentino and claims that he was ‘effeminate’, and Monsieur Beaucaire seemed to reinforce this idea as his screen persona in the film was perceived as overly ‘feminised’. In 1926 Valentino issued an unanswered challenge to the Chicago Tribune’s anonymous writer to a boxing match, after the paper reported that a vending machine dispensing pink talcum powder had appeared in an upscale hotel’s men’s washroom and an editorial blamed Valentino and his films for the pink talcum powder and ‘the feminisation of American men’.

It is remade in 1946 as the comedy Monsieur Beaucaire with Bob Hope. The novel was adapted into Ernst Lubitsch’s 1930 musical film Monte Carlo with Jeanette MacDonald and Jack Buchanan.

The 1951 biopic Valentino includes a sequence dedicated to Monsieur Beaucaire.

A long sequence dedicated to Monsieur Beaucaire appears in Ken Russell’s 1977 film Valentino, with Rudolf Nureyev as Valentino and John Justin as Sidney Olcott.

Also in the cast are Bebe Daniels as Princess Henriette, Lois Wilson as Queen Marie of France, Doris Kenyon as Lady Mary, Lowell Sherman as King Louis XV of France, Paulette Duval as Madame de Pompadour, John Davidson as Richelieu, Oswald Yorke as Miropoix, Flora Finch as Duchess of Montmorency, Louis Waller as François, Ian MacLaren as Duke of Winterset, Frank Shannon as Badger, Templar Powell as Molyneux, H. Cooper Cliffe as Beau Nash, Downing Clarke as Lord Chesterfield, Yvonne Hughes as Duchess of Flauhaut, Harry Lee as Voltaire, Florence O’Denishawn as Colombine, André Daven as Duc de Nemours, Blanche Craig as Ball Guest at Bath, Brian Donlevy as Ball Guest at Bath, and Nat Pendleton as Barber.

Monsieur Beaucaire is directed by Sidney Alcott, runs 106 minutes, is made by Famous Players-Lasky, is released by Paramount Pictures, is written by Forrest Halsey (scenario), is shot in black and white by Harry Fischbeck, is produced by Sidney Alcott, and designed by Natacha Rambova (Art Direction and Costume Design).

Valentino’s wife Natacha Rambova was felt to have had an undue and negative influence on the costumes, set and direction. But, nevertheless, these costume and set designs look magnificent.

It was filmed at Kaufman Astoria Studios in New York City.

The full film is available free on the Internet.

Italian actor based in the US Rudolph Valentino, or Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filiberto Guglielmi di Valentina d’Antonguella (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926) starred in several famous silent films, including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle, and The Son of the Sheik.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,155

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

And here It is! Monsieur Beaucaire full movie Rudolph Valentino: