Stewart Granger

Eleanor Parker

Janet Leigh

Mel Ferrer

Henry Wilcoxon

Nina Foch

Richard Anderson

Robert Coote

Lewis Stone

Elisabeth Risdon

Howard Freeman

Curtis Cooksey

John Dehner

John Litel

Jonathan Cott

Dan Foster

Owen McGiveney

Hope Landin

Frank Mitchell

Carol Hughes

Barrie Chase

John George

Richard Hale

Douglass Dumbrille

Aram Katcher

Rex Reason

Harry 'Snub' Pollard

John Eldredge

Ottola Nesmith

George Sidney

Ronald Millar

Rafael Sabatini

George Froeschel

Evelyn Finley

Carey Wilson

Charles Rosher

Cedric Gibbons

Hans Peters

Victor Young

A. Arnold Gillespie

Irving G. Ries

Peter Ballbusch

Sydney Guilaroff

James E. Newcom

Gile Steele

Edwin B. Willis

Warren Newcombe

James Gooch

Richard Pefferle

William Tuttle

Henri Jaffa

George Rhein

Douglas Shearer

Adventure

Romance

Scaramouche

Loew's Incorporated

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

United States of America

Will you do the fandango with that trusty blade sir? 

"He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad"

Scaramouche is a romantic revenge adventure brought to us by MGM. It's based on the 1921 novel Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini. The story was also filmed as a silent film in 1923 that starred Ramon Novarro. Directed by George Sidney (Anchors Aweigh/Kiss Me Kate), it stars Stewart Granger, Eleanor Parker, Janet Leigh, Mel Ferrer and John Dehner. It's produced by Carey Wilson from a screenplay by Ronald Millar and George Froeschel. The original music score was composed by Victor Young and the cinematography by Charles Rosher. 

Do you want your buckle swashed? Would you like to be whisked away on an adventure with beautiful women and handsome men at every turn? All played out in sumptuous Technicolor? Where the sets and costumes are of a very high quality and the choreography of the sword play is as good as it gets? If yes then Scaramouche is the film for you. A classic swashbuckler in the truest sense of the saying. 

The makers have simplified Sabatini's novel to make the film family friendly, the script is literate and witty, while the cast attack the material with gleeful relish. Particularly Granger, who smirks his way thru the piece with debonair ease; and Mel Ferrer who delivers one of the finest villains the genre has thrown up. At the core of the film is the longest filmed ever sword duel at six and a half minutes, every second of which is vibrant, bold, and yes, damn sexy too. Sidney's direction is very astute because the pace never sags and there's just enough characterisation to make us root for the hero and to boo the villain. Whilst the piece rightly in its approach work never resorts to being a boorish history lesson. Even the love triangle {poor Stewart has both the sensual Parker and the sweet Leigh lusting after him!} never cloys the story, and in fact gives the film a solid centre as the outer edges merge into its adventure based being. 

Not as famous as some of Errol Flynn or Tyrone Powers' sword play movies, but it should be because it's a rapier ripper of a movie. 8/10

English

Scaramouche (1952) Official Trailer - Stewart Granger, Janet Leigh Swashbuckler Movie HD