Dashing John Gilbert is a charming rogue in the Court of the Crimson King (or whomever, who cares). After he's caught in the boudouir with the wife of a local nobleman he goes for drinks with the King and some wiseacre bets him his castle that he can't seduce Madame de Eleanor Boardman. That's your setup.
What follows is Gilbert mosly standing about in drawing rooms, trying to seduce Boardman. It's all poncey nonsense. Sure, the leads are beautiful, but they are inert. Gilbert's character isn't a real person, he's a preening caricature. Boardman - wildly effective as the impoverished wife in The Crowd - is so downbeat that it's hard to believe, despite her under-rated beauty - that Gilbert would be spending so much time in her except for that bet he made. She's just not dynamic enough.
Compared to The Crowd, where director King Vidor wowed us with the photography, the story, the pacing, the acting - everything - Bardelys is not so Magnificent in each of those respects.
What follows is Gilbert mosly standing about in drawing rooms, trying to seduce Boardman. It's all poncey nonsense. Sure, the leads are beautiful, but they are inert. Gilbert's character isn't a real person, he's a preening caricature. Boardman - wildly effective as the impoverished wife in The Crowd - is so downbeat that it's hard to believe, despite her under-rated beauty - that Gilbert would be spending so much time in her except for that bet he made. She's just not dynamic enough.
Compared to The Crowd, where director King Vidor wowed us with the photography, the story, the pacing, the acting - everything - Bardelys is not so Magnificent in each of those respects.