Bardelys the Magnificent
According to Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne, the reason this film was (almost) lost was that Rafael Sabatini, the author of the book, didn't sell the movie rights to MGM outright. Instead, he leased them for 10 years, and in 1936 MGM chose not to renew the lease because it decided that a silent film with a now-dead star no longer had commercial value. So, according to the terms of Sabatini's contract, MGM destroyed the negative and all known prints.,It is odd that loyalist and judge Chatellerault should propose marriage to a woman from what he knows was a rebel family which is of such repugnance to the king that he forbids Bardelys from proposing to her.,Bardelys: - - your hair is like a jealous cloud that veils the beauty of the moon -...,Featured in Show People (1928),The way foreign directors treat French history since DW Griffith and Vidor to Sofia Coppola has always been "personal ": King louis XIII appears as a jolly good fellow whereas le cardinal de Richelieu is overshadowed ,duels are not forbidden (whereas Richelieu thought that they were ruining the French aristocracy ,"these who fight (for their country)" ) and the hero is to be hanged (whereas nobles were always beheaded).

But it's true that Louis the Thirteenth (and le cardinal) would fight both reluctant nobles and protestants; there were rebellions among them,predating the Fronde ,during Anne D'Autriche's regency .

Forget history and you 've got a marvelous swashbuckler with plenty of go and plenty of humor : in spite of an occasional dramatic scene (the lovers in the dungeon where the hero waits for his execution) , playing is a bit tongue-in -chick and most of the time it's comic,sometimes even burlesque : the words Bardelys says to all the ladies he seduces ,the lockets with a locks of hair,churned one after another by the servants , the duel ending with a smack on the bottom (with a sword), the final acrobaties around the gallows,so skillfully filmed (spears points around the drifter) , that one almost believes in this implausible escape.

The movie was restored,but there's a long passage missing ,replaced by photographs and snatches of dialogues:the meeting between the hero,en route to the castle of the lady he covets ,and a dying René De Lesperan , a rebel against the king's authority whose name Bardelys usurps .

John Gilbert is a dashing handsome gentilhomme , a womanizer who is never inconsiderate towards his conquests ,noblesse oblige ; Roy D'Arcy is a delightful villain ,who savors his revenge during the trial ,half-closed eyes, refusing to know his former rival ("Chatellerault" is a town in Poitou) and sending him to the scaffold with an incredible pleasure.

Very entertaing ,action-packed , lots of humor and a screenplay full of sudden new developments :who could ask for more?,