clanciai A gorgeous dramatization of the French revolution in its dying phase with all the leaders going down, Danton, Robespierre and St. Just, with Robert Cummings as a kind if French pimpernel working for Lafayette to unsettle the revolutionary establishment that has derailed into terror. It's a marvellous intrigue, with a beautiful lady at the centre, of course, and with some great acting that should be noted, especially Richard Baseheart (!) as Robespierre - it's impossible to recognize him. Can you see Captain Ahab's number one Starbuck or Fellini's jester in La Strada in this Robespierre? Equally outstanding is Arnold Moss as Fouché, oiling his ways into and out of intrigues and finally facing Napoleon. To all this comes a terrific score by Saul Kaplan. It's almost expressionistic and gives a very sharp impression of the drama of the French revolution.What then is failing? It's just slightly out of any realism. It's too adventurous, too much turned into an artificial thriller, and unfortunastely Jess Barker is totally miscast as St. Just - he is not convincing at all, and St.Just was not like that. He was an effeminate dandy and no soldier.Still, it's a brilliant film with terrific action all the way, that can't disappoint anyone.

JohnHowardReid Despite some banal dialogue and one's initial difficulty in reconciling the wide variety of accents used by the cast, this is a film that will delight all classes of picturegoers. Few will quibble at the great liberties the script takes with history as the plot is a stirring and exciting one with hairbreadth escapes and an enormous amount of action and fast movement that will have all audiences sitting on the edges of their seats with excitement. Not only are the situations absorbing, but the characters are interesting and the players give performances that are both extremely competent and surprisingly ingratiating. Robert Cummings gives one of his most pleasing portrayals. Although he was usually cast as a likable stumblebum in light romantic comedies, Cummings actually excelled in dramatic costume parts (as this film and "The Lost Moment" so amply demonstrate) which rarely was he given the opportunity to play. Arlene Dahl is delightfully picturesque as the heroine and it is pleasing to note she doesn't hog the camera (a great deal of the time she is on screen you can hardly see her). She has not been introduced into the script as an afterthought of box office necessity, but has a role that is vital to the whole proceedings to play — and she plays it well! Basehart gives a riveting performance as Robespierre whom he portrays as a towering incarnation of monstrous brutality and evil, abetted by his henchmen, Saint Just (played with force and subtlety by Jess Barker) and the crafty, sly, satanic, self-confessed self-seeker Fouche (Arnold Moss in one of his most memorably malevolent portrayals). Norman Lloyd has a small part (on the right side for once) which he acts out in his usual slippery fashion. Despite his prominence in the billing, Richard Hart has only a small role as Barras. Other parts are very competently enacted and it is a nice surprise to find some of our favorite cameo players in unaccustomed costume roles — Victor Kilian as the turnkey, George Lloyd a member of the Convention, Beulah Bondi as Grand-ma. Charles McGraw figures prominently in the final climax.It was a violent era and there is a great deal of violence on the screen. The film could be frightening for children — doubly so because it is filmed throughout most atmospherically in very low key. Many scenes have very little light, the gloom and eerie shadows adding to the suspense. Mann's superlative choice of camera angles (Robespierre seems a towering figure because he is often viewed from a low angle — even in close-up) drives every emotive point home. Costumes and sets are dazzling and make an important contribution also to characterization (Robespierre in gleaming white, Moss in black, Cummings in gray) and even the plot (Cummings' adroit business with the wig). The whole film is handled with an inventiveness and a brilliance that is all the more enthralling for being so unexpected. It is absolutely jammed with the sort of shots that lesser directors congratulate themselves on using once or twice in their otherwise steadfastly banal and mercilessly dull picturizations. The use of mirrors, one of the key devices in Mann's earlier films, appears here in several ingenious and highly effective contexts. Mann can control crowd scenes with as great a dexterity as the most subtle and insinuating of dialogue exchanges and exhibits throughout his customary skillful use of natural locations. The whole film is crowded with shots (a knife from an unseen assailant at Cummings' throat as he steps inside a windmill; Robespierre placing a grotesque mask in front of his face reflected in a mirror as his wig is powdered and brushed; Fouche and Robespierre face to face in the torture chamber; the Prosecutor of Strasbourg preening himself in a mirror as a hand reaches from behind to clutch at his throat; the visitor lifting her veil in the candle-light) and scenes (Lloyd parrying banter with Cummings at a café while sitting in front of him idly eating olives; Robespierre raising his hands in a dramatic gesture to arrest the mob as they storm into his chambers; the eerie opening with faces like ghosts wrathing in the mists; the attempted escape from prison with the aged turnkey fumbling with the keys) that stay long in the memory.The script has some wonderful ideas — Robespierre's office in a bakery; Fouche asking Cummings if his name is in the book and his sudden and unexpected and unexplained attack — and it respects the intelligence of the audience by not explaining everything away or talking down or putting little patriotic speeches about the dangers of dictatorship into the mouths of its heroes. Certainly, it is implied, but, commendably, any parallels with present-day dictatorships are not overtly stated.Credits are first-class. Producer William Cameron Menzies has doubtless influenced the enormous, brooding sets with their atmospheric trappings and appointments, as well as Alton's impressive low-key photography (particularly shots like that of the silhouetted riders outlined on the rim of a twilighted hill). Editing is both sharp and smooth, the music score apt and deft. Production values are first-class.

gordonl56 THE BLACK BOOK – 1949I finally got around to this one, and I was rather surprised just how much I enjoyed it. Even though I'm a fan of the director, and director of photography, the French Revolution just never grabbed me as a possible venue for a noir, so I avoided this one for years. Boy was I wrong to do that.Loved the look of the whole production, I'd swear that John Alton lit the entire film with the refection of a lit cigar off a quarter.Robert Cummings and Richard Basehart headline with great support from, Arnold Moss, Beulah Bondi, Charles McGraw, Arlene Dahl and Richard Hart. Look close and you can see long time bit players, John Doucette, Dabbs Greer, Dan Seymour and Royal Dano.The story is about a group of patriots out to stop the evil Robespierre, played by Richard Basehart. The man has been on a spree of trials and executions of everyone opposed to his rule. He wants to be named dictator of all of France. This of course does not sit well with many.It seems that Robespierre has a book with all his enemies, real or perceived in it. If the Patriots can obtain said book, they can expose Robespierre as the murdering swine that he is. Robert Cumming plays the main agent of this underground group.Produced by budget minded Eagle-Lion studios, this one sure gives full value. Well worth a watch, though some of the prints out there are not that great. I caught this one off TCM. Director Anthony Mann strikes again!

dougdoepke Slice into Arnold Moss's Inspector Fouche and you'd get an oily spill bigger than BP's. It's a great tongue-in-cheek performance, about as charmingly slimy as they come. Now, I've read several books on the French Revolution, but there are a bunch of things I learned from this supremely stylish film (Anthony Mann). Mainly, that The Terror occurred at night in noirish lighting (John Alton) with a great supporting cast of Basehart, Moss, Lloyd and McGraw; that the art guy who designed Paris (Cameron Menzies) cast all sorts of nightmarish shadows over the city; and that not even a well-meaning lightweight like Robert Cummings could spoil these inspired events. As a result, the movie is a visual Terror that really fires up the imagination, history books or no.But I especially love it when that bewigged fop Robespierre is led into the Assembly near the end, and this raucous wall of faces fills the screen. Right away you know somebody's in big trouble. Now I also know why the real Assembly was nicknamed "the mountain", though "volcano" might be more accurate here. And catch that great silhouetted shot of the farmhouse during the chase, like nothing I've seen since the equally unique Night of the Hunter (1955). In fact, almost every frame features a compelling visual of one kind or another. Without doubt, the 90-minutes is one of the weird glories of B-movie noir; at the same time, ace producer Walter Wanger should be congratulated for assembling such an outstanding production crew and supporting cast, (I'm assuming the two leads Cummings and Dahl were concessions to Hollywood commercialism).Anyhow the movie scared the daylights out of me as a kid, and now, impresses the heck out of me as a geezer.