Vagabond poet François Villon rises to high office in 1463 Paris.Vagabond poet François Villon rises to high office in 1463 Paris.Vagabond poet François Villon rises to high office in 1463 Paris.
- Nominated for 4 Oscars
- 4 nominations total
- Director
- Writers
- Justin Huntly McCarthy
- Lou Smith(uncredited)
- Preston Sturges
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaRonald Colman was a frequent guest on Jack Benny's radio show, where he was supposedly Jack's next-door neighbor in Beverly Hills. A 1946 broadcast had Colman rehearsing his recital of the poem, "If I Were King," only to find himself being drowned out by Jack's violin playing from next door.
- GoofsThe idealized diet of a king includes hummingbirds, but those had not been discovered yet, as Columbus was still a few decades to come.
- Quotes
King Louis XI: If it is so easy to be king, how would you begin?
François Villon: First, by eating... my next step would be to clean house. The vermin who infest the palace I'd hang in clusters.
King Louis XI: What would you do next?
François Villon: Try to know my subjects and try to earn their devotion and loyalty instead of their loathing.
King Louis XI: By abolishing taxes, I suppose?
François Villon: No! By abolishing despair and substituting hope. By knowing the longings in their hearts as a man of the people would, seeing them as they are and admitting that their vices are as deep rooted as their virtues. I'd treat them as my children instead of as my enemies, so by knowing the worst in them, I'd bring out the best in them.
- Crazy creditsThe opening credits are displayed on the roofs and outside walls of houses.
- ConnectionsReferenced in So You Want to Be an Actor (1949)
"If I Were King" also included superior performances by two great actors at the top of their game. Ronald Coleman was the perfect choice to play the swashbuckling poet-rogue, Francois Villon. For the benefit of those not familiar with French literature, Francois Villon really was a 15th Century French poet, he really did graduate from the Sorbonne and he really was a petty criminal who seems to have been constantly in trouble with the law. Born in Paris in 1431, Villon is described as having "disappeared from view" in 1463. To this day nobody really knows for sure what became of him, although the presumption is that he came to no good end. However, there is absolutely no evidence that he ever did anything even remotely heroic. Ronald Coleman possessed more than enough swashbuckling charm to carry the role, as well as the mellifluous voice to make the poetry work as few other actors, even in his day, could have done.
Usually known for playing either villains or Sherlock Holmes, Basil Rathbone, was given a rare opportunity to demonstrate his acting virtuosity by playing an aging King Louis IX; the clever, conniving and cynical French monarch who has become known to history as "Louis the Spider". At one point in the movie Preston Sturges has the King self-deprecatingly remark that, "The people of France already have one 'Saint Louis', another would only confuse them".
- robertguttman
- Dec 14, 2015
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Details
- Runtime1 hour 41 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1