Well first of all, M. BEAUCAIRE is Booth Tarkington and not Sabatini but it's still a pleasure to see this as an early entry in the MGM Sabatini cycle, along with a couple of Scaramouches, especially when it had been lost for so long. The copy seems incomplete outside the missing reel. Where is Edward Connelly's Cardinal Richelieu? The subject is not a good match with the talents of King Vidor. La BOHEME is a much better film and it appears perverse to have him do it, when Victor Seastrom, one of the originators and masters of the costume movie was on the MGM pay roll.
Vidor gives it good try and seems to have a nice rapport with the leads. Gilbert was at his peak and radiates star power here and Eleanor Boardman is a nice departure from heroines in ringlets. Their relationship makes the piece agreeable and the action climax, while it is sub Fairbanks, is ingeniously staged, making great use of the lances and having some striking downward shots.
This is an agreeable missing piece in the film history jig saw.
Vidor gives it good try and seems to have a nice rapport with the leads. Gilbert was at his peak and radiates star power here and Eleanor Boardman is a nice departure from heroines in ringlets. Their relationship makes the piece agreeable and the action climax, while it is sub Fairbanks, is ingeniously staged, making great use of the lances and having some striking downward shots.
This is an agreeable missing piece in the film history jig saw.