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Le bossu (1960) A 1960 swashbuckler, taken from Paul Feval's several-times-filmed novel,
this offers gorgeous scenery and costumes, but is a little flat in the
playing - the characters should be larger-than-life and none of the
cast can compete in the swordplay stakes with the likes of Stewart Granger
in Scaramouche. Part of the trouble is a plot that
takes a whole reel (and fifteen years) to get going, as the murder of
the Duke de Nevers (Huber Noel, of Devils
of Darkness) in 1701 by a rival courtier, Gonzague (Francois Chaumette),
leads to the exile-in-Spain of heroic swordslinger Henri de Lagardere
(Jean Marais), who becomes guardian to his late friend's unacknowledged
but legitimate infant daughter, aided by a comedy peasant servant (Bourvil)
who starts out as an assassin but becomes a loyal retainer. Some years
later, the girl (Sabine Sesselmann) has grown up enough to become the
love interest of the somewhat-mature Marais (Sesselmann plays her character's
mother as well and doesn't look fifteen, but it's still a perilously
Lolita-like bit of business) and the evil Gonzague is trying to track
down the brat and worm into the high regard of the new regent. The story
straggles to Spain and back and Henri adopts a secondary identity with
bald pate, false nose and big hump as 'le bossu', a lucky hunchback
- of course tearing off his disguise in the climax so he can duel with
the villain to a happy ending. It has dash and colour, but (like the
Fantomas movies director Andre Hunebelle made with Marais) its character
is defined by the hero's stolid, stiff demeanour and never quite takes
flight. Bourvil, a French comic institution, doesn't travel well. First published in this form here. Visit Kim's Official Website at www.johnnyalucard.com
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