The Black Rose (1950)

The Black Rose is a beautifully photographed Technicolor adventure that stutters a little due to script difficulties and miscasting. The movie was made in England at Shepperton Studios and released on Fox at a time when the studio was looking for ways to economize following the antitrust action that ordered the studios to divest themselves of their theater chains. Many films in this era were made in Europe which was cheaper than the USA - imagine that!

This is the type of film that Tyrone Power was cast in more and more often as Fox tried to milk the last dollar out of his box office draw. Cast as sort of a second generation Errol Flynn-type swashbuckler, Power always longed to do drama and prove he was more than just a "pretty face." However, in the days of the studio system, actors like Power were locked into iron clad contracts and had to do what the studio assigned or not work. The result was quite a number of films like this that used exotic locations, well known supporting actors, and brilliant Technicolor but more often than not lacked a good script.

From a novel by Thomas Costain, the movie has a script that starts and ends in medieval England and the middle section takes place in Asia. There are abrupt transitions between the three sections so after establishing the action in England - bang - you're in Asia for a while, and bang - you're back in England. The story is a typical adventure - a young Oxford scholar Walter (Power) rebels against the Normans who have conquered his country. He helps a band of peasants led by a longbowman (Jack Hawkins) to break some hostages out of the Norman dungeon. This makes him a fugitive and the next scene shows him somewhere in Asia, either the Holy Land or similar, with the bowman Tris (Jack Hawkins).

They bargain with a slick native (Alfonso Bedoya) for passage on a caravan to Cathay (China) and find they are traveling with the military column of warlord Bayan (Orson Welles) who is heading to war against China. Welles takes to the Englishmen and spends a lot of time explaining his plans to them. There is a pretty good shooting contest that shows the superiority of the English longbow (of course). A young princess (Cecile Aubry) escapes from the plunder being transferred to the Chinese Emperor and hides in the Englishmen's tent. From that point further, they somehow keep her hidden and pursue the rest of their activities, among them; she wants to be escorted to England, just what the two adventurers wanted to hear.

The screenplay seems to be a melding of the Robin Hood and Marco Polo stories combining the enmity between the Saxons and Normans and the wonders of the mysterious East. The movie has a lot of talking but any action it promises fails to convincingly develop.

I wondered because our American convention accepts an English accent to cover any foreign language but Tyrone Power never even tried to put an English accent on, he just spoke in his standard American accent. He is a little long in the tooth (36) to be playing a scholar of 20 but that's how he was continually cast by Fox. I might as well mention this, too, that all the speaking Asian parts are played by mostly Caucasians in makeup, and the accents are a sing-song English to indicate the language barrier. If a person is offended by this, they should skip this movie. The dark, shadowy Technicolor cinematography is by Jack Cardiff, one of the best.

Alfonso Bedoya (Treasure of the Sierra Madre) provides a memorable personage for the two Englishmen to interact with, and of course Orson Welles does a magnificent job with his few scenes as the leader of the army, outfitted in barbaric splendor. This was the time frame when Welles was doing bit parts to finance his own projects like Macbeth and Othello. Jack Hawkins (Bridge on the River Kwai) is always a treat and he did a fine job here. Cecile Aubry is not very memorable as a chattering underage-looking love interest for Tyrone Power. Finally, Power himself only seems about half engaged in his part, perhaps he did all he could but the script was weak, never leading to anything much. The supporting cast is peppered with English familiar faces: James Robertson Justice, Michael Rennie, Finlay Currie and so on.

The Black Rose is the sort of movie I loved as a kid, and I think kids now will still get a kick out of it, but when I look at it now, I see too many flaws.

The Fox DVD is in nice shape but unrestored. The 1.33:1 Technicolor feature runs 120 minutes. There is an extra feature called "Tyrone Power Family Reunion" in which his three grown children and widow Linda Christian discuss the star's career and home life. Power died at age 44 so this feature will be of interest to his many fans. Like all titles in the Tyrone Power Collection, replica lobby cards are included in the DVD package.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV