Frenchman's Creek (1944)

Admirable film.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Yes, this movie is a secret pleasure of mine. I loved the book by DuMaurier--considering it one of my all time favorites--and have read it several times. To have the book brought to life on the screen is rewarding. Yes, the color and acting are great, but I imagine so much more in my fantasies. I wish Hedy Lamarr would have played Dona. She was so beautiful, and I believe, could have carried off the "tomboy" just as well, if not more believably, than Fontaine. (Such as her Samson and Delilah role.) As far as the pirate, I'm OK with Cordova, but his small stature sort of detracts from the fantasy. He's adequate enough, and foreign enough, to carry this film for me. I puzzle over who I would have preferred to play that part. I'm not sure I would have liked Errol Flynn in the part (as suggested). I not familiar with enough foreign actors at that time (1940's) to suggest who. I suppose if it were more recent, possibly Gerard Depardieu would have fit in nicely. All in all, I love this movie. The ending is bittersweet. Basil Rathbone provides a believable menace and Nigel Bruce is perfect in his role as the dithering husband. As I said, a "secret pleasure". I treasure this movie.

Director Leisen, who started out as Cecil B. De Mille’s art director, was one of Hollywood’s supreme stylists throughout the 1930s and 1940s; unfortunately, his reputation has dwindled in recent years and, consequently, much of his filmography has so far been neglected on DVD (only DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY [1934], HANDS ACROSS THE TABLE [1935] and GOLDEN EARRINGS [1947] are available – with EASY LIVING [1937] and MIDNIGHT [1939] coming up)! While he’s best-known for sophisticated comedies in the vein of Lubitsch, Sturges, Wilder et al – all four, incidentally, worked most often at Paramount – he also dabbled in other genres (or mixed them with utmost confidence) and, this, in fact is a costumer/romance/swashbuckler all in one! The film is based on a novel by Daphne DuMaurier – very popular around this time, including two Hitchcock adaptations (JAMAICA INN [1939] and REBECCA [1940]); the latter had made a star of Joan Fontaine, who also fills the leading role here – throughout the decade, she would appear in a number of costumers (JANE EYRE [1944], IVY [1947], LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN [1948] and, later on, IVANHOE [1952] and CASANOVA’S BIG NIGHT [1954]). Lavishly-mounted (copping an Oscar for Hans Dreier’s production design) and shot in rich Technicolor (as was the case with THE Spanish MAIN [1945] by George Barnes and an Academy Award winner, incidentally, for the afore-mentioned REBECCA), Leisen is ably served by the fine cast he managed to assemble in this case.Even if he’s supposed to be French, Arturo de Cordova is a most interesting choice for the dashing and virile pirate; I acquired a soft spot the Spanish actor after viewing his impressively nuanced central performance in Luis Bunuel’s study of pathological jealousy EL (1952) – still one of the most fascinating character studies ever put on film! Basil Rathbone is a stalwart in this type of film, though he’s a lecherous aristocratic villain here rather than a rival swordsman for the hero; his startling death scene at the hands of Fontaine is an undeniable dramatic highlight. Cecil Kellaway is terrific as Fontaine’s amiable but mysterious butler, who’s eventually revealed to be a foremost member of de Cordova’s pirate entourage; the popular Australian character actor would soon after play the painter Gainsborough in another costumer by Leisen, KITTY (1945) – a variation on “Pygmalion” starring Ray Milland and Paulette Goddard which remains one of the director’s finest films. Smaller roles were given to Nigel Bruce, typically obtuse and pompous as an aristocratic pirate victim (interestingly, this is the only film he and Rathbone would make together outside of their classic, and long-running, “Sherlock Holmes” series) and Ralph Forbes in the role of Fontaine’s insufferably fey husband. Incidentally, being aware of Mitchell Leisen’s homosexual tendencies (together with those of executive producer David Lewis), one can hardly escape the film’s gay subtext: apart from the afore-mentioned character of Fontaine’s husband (who is clearly more interested in his best friend Rathbone), Fontaine herself dresses up as a cabin boy for a chunk of the movie, De Cordova is often seen bare-chested and surrounded by his handsome lieutenants, his crew gleefully dress up in the women’s clothing they’ve just pillaged, etc.With a not inconsiderable length of 112 minutes, the film’s first half – more akin to the so-called “woman’s picture” – is somewhat leisurely-paced and rather dreary. However, it eventually bursts into satisfying excitement and suspense – with such sequences as the pirates’ theft of a merchant ship from the docks, de Cordova’s decision to confront the nobility gathered at Forbes’ estate to plan his apprehension, the ensuing scuffle between the two factions and, finally, after the hero has been cornered and jailed, his shrewdly-organized flight from captivity with the help of the loving Fontaine and the devoted Kellaway. The CASABLANCA-like finale, in which the dutiful mother Fontaine sacrifices her own happiness to return to a repentant husband and their children, is unusual for this type of film and only adds to its already apparent value as a superior example of the genre(s).

I've never seen this fanciful costumer in a theater but a TV broadcast, quite a few years ago, fairly leapt from the screen - the three-strip Technicolor had transferred to video as if it were a pristine print. Paramount obviously spared no expense on this one and, despite some minor objections, I recall being thoroughly entertained by it, especially that absolutely savage battle-to-the-death between Basil Rathbone's quintessentially dastardly villain and a desperately determined Joan Fontaine.Some years back I somewhere read that, while waiting in full makeup and costumes for the lighting technicians to work their magic, Miss Fontaine rather scathingly queried her costar, Arturo de Cordova, why he was pursuing a career as an actor, apparently with the implication that it was an occupation unworthy of a man. If that's the kind of treatment he had to undergo at the hands of a Hollywood leading lady, one can confidently guess that his much greater success in Latin American cinema left him with few regrets that his Hollywood sojourn never amounted to much.

My favorite pirate film was the "Black Swan" (and I didn't hate "Cutthroat Island", either!), but this is a close second even though there is less sea action and it's more ABOUT a pirate. The sets and acting are wonderful; the use of color is magnificent. This is a very enjoyable film with the gorgeous Joan Fonatine (Olivia deHavilland's estranged sister) acting up a storm and at her peak of pulchritude, and the magnificent Basil Rathbone demonstrating his soaring acting talent. The hilight of the film for me was one of the best fight scenes ever filmed - an all-out battle-to-the-death between Rathbone - and Fontaine!! A classic!