writers_reign It's superficially easy to 'read' this 1941 entry centering on greed as a metaphor for the Teutonic hunger/greed for power but I'll leave that to the academic pseuds. This is simply a brilliant filmic interpretation of a classic play - Ben Johnson was writing out of London around the same time as Shakespeare - and features a director, Maurice Tourneur and two leading players, Harry Baur and Louis Jouvet, at the top of their games. For good measure there's also strong support from Fernand Ledoux and a great time is had by all. Tourneur switches effortlessly from crowd scenes to duos and trios and Armand Thirard's camera-work is exemplary which may explain why Tourneur took him to Continental that same year. This is a nine out of ten going away.

Cineanalyst The print I saw was of very poor quality, but that doesn't appear to matter. This is a filmed play, with totally uninteresting cinematography. The idea of actors acting, with all the pranks and scheming is promising, but not here. This isn't funny. If there was supposed to be some satire, it is lost.I suppose it is not uncommon, but this film, "Volpone", directed by Maurice Tourneur bares no resemblance to the films of his made three or so decades ago. In the 1910s into the 1920s, Tourneur was a pioneer the new art form in the states. His films were interestingly photographed for the times. "The Wishing Ring: An Idyll of Old England" (1914) referenced theatre, but in a rather cinematic way. "Volpone" is just one of the films he made in France, but it seems antagonistic to a filmmaker who was forging an identity for cinema more independent of theatre.

larry41onEbay I feel so luck to have caught this rare film at CINEFEST the annual early & rare film festival in Syracuse, NY - March 2003. More film buffs should support these festivals and share their discoveries on the IMDB so other film fans can track these old titles down. VOLPONE (1941, Sirilzky Pictures, in French w/English subtitles. D: Maurice Tourneur) A cynical, unscrupulous merchant played by Harry Baur, named Volpone (aka "the fox") schemes with his servant to con his greedy `friends' out of their money by pretending to be ill and dying, knowing they will give him gifts in hopes of being listed in his will. He then sits back to enjoy the fireworks but his plan inevitably backfires, setting the stage for an ironic denouement.

rparisious Virtually none of Maurice Tourneur's work is generally available in the late twentieth English speaking world.This has been thus far posterity's loss. The present writer, after extensive efforts,has only been able to view three of his films scattered over a twenty-five year period.It is enough to state there is a treasure trove awaiting excavation out there.His son Jacques is justly admired for what he could do with often seemingly intractable material and actors of ordinarily limited interpretive ability.Obviously he learned most every trick in the book for his adroit father but rarely had as literate materials as the senior Tourneur.The son's massive fan following should be fighting to see more of the father's work. M.Tourneur worked many years in Hollywood silents. The two available to me(both literary adaptations)show an incredible awareness of the auditory riches the audience cannot share and the duty of the director to convey as much of this in another media as humanly possible.When he later chose to shoot "Volpone" for a French audience, he was somewhat equipped for a herculean task.The script is by the best Elizabethan writer,apart from Shakespeare(whoever he was);but iit is a play which is more admired than loved and rarely performed, even on the English stage. Tourneur romps through it. Two of the best acors of their time,Harry Baur and Louis Jouvet,perform as if the play were originally written for Frechmen.The costuming and the photography in glorious black-and-white is what the word style is all about.But why go on?Ignore author Ben Jonson's advice and look on the picture,not the book.Then demand a Maurice Tourneur festival from somebody out there.