This fun slice of Gainsborough melodrama may have been blasted by the critics, but it was a hit in it's day and it still provides plenty of entertainment for those with an open mind. Regular Gainsborough leading man Stewart Granger stars as Richard Darrell, a would-be writer in Regency England who is hopelessly in love with the beautiful, well-to-do Oriana (Anne Crawford). Oriana loves him back but is acutely aware of his lack of social status. So Granger takes on a quest that will provide him with money and have his book published. Hired by a Spanish nobleman Don Carlos, who has met by pure chance, his job is to transport a valuable necklace to Spain. Trouble is, Oriana's father has just died and her her devious, diabolical friend Sir Francis Castleton (Dennis Price, also hopelessly in love with Oriana) is executor of her father's estate. Oriana is left virtually penniless in Sir Francis' cunning plan to win Oriana and hire a hit man (Robert Helpmann) to kill Granger and steal the necklace. Yet none of these characters had counted on the determination of a fiery Spanish gypsy girl (Jean Kent) also in love with Granger....
This film is a lot of fun. It's pure nonsense of course, yet it's rollicking pace, outlandish twists and turns and period setting give it a unique charm. Kent is especially fun as the gypsy Rosal. Kent can't sing or dance very well, and that accent is a shocker, yet she's vibrant, capturing the audience's imagination every time she appears on screen. She's in direct contrast to the limpid blonde heroine Anne Crawford, who really has no presence on-screen or chemistry with Granger. Her wooden acting and over-enunciation soon become tiresome, hence Kent's attractiveness if doubled. I wonder why they didn't cast Phyllis Calvert in the Oriana role. Calvert had worked well and shared good chemistry with Granger in a number of Gainsborough vehicles (including the previous year's Madonna Of The Seven Moons , my favourite Gainsboriugh film)prior to this. Perhaps they feared audiences were growing tired if the partnership? Perhaps Calvert wanted out of her Gainsborough contract? Who knows, yet Calvert's refined dignity and quality of tragic reserve is sorely missed here.
Granger has the sort of arrogant, yet attractive adventurous role he liked best. It's really a forerunner to his Hollywood vehicles. Price chews scenery and is delicious as the villain Sir Francis, wonderfully over-the-top, and blowing Crawford right off the screen. Yet the film belongs to Miss Kent as the bewitching Rosal. After Granger has been critically wounded by Spanish men hired to kill him, the resourceful Kent nurses Granger back to health in her cave. It is revealed he is suffering from memory loss, and Kent, by now hopelessly in love with Granger (passions abound in Gainsborough!), tries to win him with her charms. It almost works too, with Granger forgetting his limpid lover's name- yet Kent mentions Oriana and Granger is immediately drawn back into her web.
It's a bit crazy to ask the viewer to believe that Granger, after being offered freedom and passion with a beautiful gypsy high up in the Spanish caves, still pines for his wooden English doll, but there you go. Love hurts. So Oriana, having believed Richard is long dead, travels to Spain to find out the truth on a hunch that he may still be alive. She has since married the cunning Price, and Granger, finding this out, marries Rosal in revenge. But fate draws the lovers back together......
Yes, it's overwrought, the script is at times laughable and it's waaay far-fetched, yet once you start watching Caravan I doubt you will turn it off until the very end.
This film is a lot of fun. It's pure nonsense of course, yet it's rollicking pace, outlandish twists and turns and period setting give it a unique charm. Kent is especially fun as the gypsy Rosal. Kent can't sing or dance very well, and that accent is a shocker, yet she's vibrant, capturing the audience's imagination every time she appears on screen. She's in direct contrast to the limpid blonde heroine Anne Crawford, who really has no presence on-screen or chemistry with Granger. Her wooden acting and over-enunciation soon become tiresome, hence Kent's attractiveness if doubled. I wonder why they didn't cast Phyllis Calvert in the Oriana role. Calvert had worked well and shared good chemistry with Granger in a number of Gainsborough vehicles (including the previous year's Madonna Of The Seven Moons , my favourite Gainsboriugh film)prior to this. Perhaps they feared audiences were growing tired if the partnership? Perhaps Calvert wanted out of her Gainsborough contract? Who knows, yet Calvert's refined dignity and quality of tragic reserve is sorely missed here.
Granger has the sort of arrogant, yet attractive adventurous role he liked best. It's really a forerunner to his Hollywood vehicles. Price chews scenery and is delicious as the villain Sir Francis, wonderfully over-the-top, and blowing Crawford right off the screen. Yet the film belongs to Miss Kent as the bewitching Rosal. After Granger has been critically wounded by Spanish men hired to kill him, the resourceful Kent nurses Granger back to health in her cave. It is revealed he is suffering from memory loss, and Kent, by now hopelessly in love with Granger (passions abound in Gainsborough!), tries to win him with her charms. It almost works too, with Granger forgetting his limpid lover's name- yet Kent mentions Oriana and Granger is immediately drawn back into her web.
It's a bit crazy to ask the viewer to believe that Granger, after being offered freedom and passion with a beautiful gypsy high up in the Spanish caves, still pines for his wooden English doll, but there you go. Love hurts. So Oriana, having believed Richard is long dead, travels to Spain to find out the truth on a hunch that he may still be alive. She has since married the cunning Price, and Granger, finding this out, marries Rosal in revenge. But fate draws the lovers back together......
Yes, it's overwrought, the script is at times laughable and it's waaay far-fetched, yet once you start watching Caravan I doubt you will turn it off until the very end.