Monsieur Beaucaire *** (1946, Bob Hope, Joan Caulfield, Patric Knowles) – Classic Movie Review 11,154

Paramount Pictures’ entertaining 1946 black and white comedy adventure Monsieur Beaucaire stars Bob Hope as the title French court barber involved in politics at the time of King Louis XV. 

Director George Marshall’s 1946 Paramount Pictures black and white comedy adventure Monsieur Beaucaire stars Bob Hope as Monsieur Beaucaire, a French court barber involved in politics at the time of King Louis XV.

Beaucaire is ordered to be sent to the guillotine but he is saved by the Duc de Chandre (Patric Knowles) and his sentence is commuted to a potentially deadly mission at the Spanish court masquerading as French nobleman ambassador to Spain, becoming engaged to Princess Maria of Spain (Marjorie Reynolds).

It is a shame that there is no colour because it is a beautifully lavish, costumed spoof swashbuckler, with Hope in top gear and a lovely cast on their best form too.

The entertaining script by comedy experts Melvin Frank and Norman Panama is derived from the Booth Tarkington novel and the 1924 Rudolph Valentino silent movie Monsieur Beaucaire.

Also in the cast are Joan Caulfield, Patric Knowles, Marjorie Reynolds, Cecil Kellaway, Hillary Brooke, Douglass Dumbrille, Mary Nash, Joseph Schildkraut, Reginald Owen, Constance Collier, Leonid Kinskey, Howard Freeman, Dorothy Vernon, Fortunio Bonanova, Alan Hale Jr, Lane Chandler, Jack Mulhall, Philip Van Zandt, Helen Freeman, Hugh Prosser, John Maxwell, George Sorel, Anthony Caruso, Jean de Briac, Jean Del Val, Lynne Lyons, Mona Maris, John Mylong, Nino Pipitone, Charles Coleman, Brandon Hurst, Buddy Roosevelt, Manuel Paris, Catherine Craig, Noreen Nash, Nina Borget, Robert Buddy Shaw, Sherry Hall, and Tony Paton.

Monsieur Beaucaire is directed by George Marshall, runs 93 minutes, is made and released by Paramount Pictures, is written by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, is shot in black and white by Lionel Lindon, is produced by Paul Jones, is scored by Robert Emmett, and is designed by Hans Dreier and Earl Hedrick.

It is shot far from Paris or Spain at Paramount Studios, 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood.

Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774) was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. His reign of almost 59 years was the second longest in the history of France. The longest uninterrupted reign by a monarch of any sovereign state is that of Louis XIV of France, who was born on 5 September 1638). He ruled for 72 years, 110 days, from 14 May 1643 to 1 September 1715. Elizabeth II of the UK is second at 70 years, 214 days.

The guillotine came after the reign of Louis XV and was later named after French physician and Freemason Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, who proposed on 10 October 1789 the use of the device to carry out executions in France in a more humane manner. It remained France’s standard method of judicial execution until the abolition of capital punishment in 1981.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,154

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