Movie review - "Dangerous Exile" (1957) *** (re-watching)

Consistently interesting but flawed quasi swashbuckler. It's got a terrific central idea - the boy king Louis XVII arrives on an English island and the French set out to kill him. The film really should be a swashbuckler but director Brian Desmond Hurst seems more interested in the gloomier aspects of the story - there's expressionistic flashbacks to the kid being tortured in prison (high ceilings, use of reds, all that). There isn't a lot of action - we don't get our first duel until over an hour in, and we don't even really see the initial escape.

The hero is beyond gloomy - noble Louis Jourdan, devoted to the king, so devoted he left HIS OWN SON IN PRISON. This film is one of the few that break a great taboo - the hero puts his own son in danger (the kid doesn't look keen to be there), putting him in prison... the kid falls sick, he does get out of prison... but then he's killed by an assassin. Full on. Louis Jourdan goes to get revenge but dude - you put your kid in prison. Worst dad in a movie?

Belinda Lee is beautiful though not much of an actor. The character is American, so there are hints she might be sympathetic to Republic values - this is a real good point of difference that should have been used more. (Aside: Lee kept playing roles Diana Dors could have played - I wonder if they had been developed for Dors? Dors had more humanity and warmth.)

Louis Jourdan has plenty of dash but I kept wanting him to be killed. Keith Michell's French revolutionary officer is far more sympathetic - he doesn't want to arm kids, only does his job under great reluctance, and is quite sympathetic.

Strong support from actors like Finlay Currie and Anne Heywood (traitors on the island) and a superb performance by Richard O'Sullivan as the young prince - alert, traumatised, terrified.

Some lovely photography, art direction and location work. Characters are set up who you think are important but aren't used enough - like that British officer keen on Lee at the beginning, or Marita Hunt. They probably should have sent Michell on the island earlier to engage with Lee and Jourdan. They definitely should have lost the plot element of Jourdan offering up his son.

Still, I've always enjoyed this movie.