Scaramouche (film)



"But who is Scaramouche? And why does he hide his face behind a mask?"

- Lenore

1952 film adaptation of the novel by Rafael Sabatini. Stewart Granger plays the hero, Andre Moreau, with Mel Ferrer opposite him as the villainous Marquis de Maynes. The female leads are Eleanor Parker (as Lenore) and Janet Leigh (as Aline de Gavrillac). MGM went all-out on the sets and costumes and the climactic duel is the longest single-take sword fight in cinematic history.

"Perigore: "The head! Fight with the head. Forget the heart.""
 * Badass: Andre
 * Best Served Cold
 * Blue Blood
 * Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends
 * Costume Porn: Oh yes.
 * Don't Think, Feel: Inverted.


 * Fiery Redhead: Lenore
 * First Girl Wins: Averted.
 * Flynning: Oh so much.
 * The French Revolution
 * Friendly Target: Philippe de Valmorin
 * Glove Slap: When the National Assembly's noble delegates are reducing the numbers of the common delegates by challenging them to duels and killing them, Moreau is challenged several times by persistent nobles who want to improve his horrendously ugly face by slapping him with a glove.
 * Hair of Gold: Aline
 * Heroes Want Redheads: Averted.
 * Interesting Situation Duel
 * Long-Lost Relative
 * The Masochism Tango: Andre and Lenore.
 * The Oner: The final duel. As it took place in a pre-Revolutionary France theatre, complete with over 600 extras in full costume, they had to get it done in one take. As it was so long the lead actors couldn't be trusted to do it, so the fight director and his assistant did it all in long-shot. After beginning the fight on the edge of the boxes, it moved to the corridor outside, then to the balconied foyer, where a single camera picks up the shot and follows them down the stairs, across the foyer, and back into the auditorium, roughly a third of the fight. The whole fight took over seven minutes, included two near-fatal accidents, and needed nine cameras to film, to cover the boxes, the corridor, the foyer, the auditorium, onstage, and backstage, none of which could be in shot for any other camera. After it was done, the leads did some close-ups of a few short sequences during the fight, and these close-ups cover the cuts between each camera.
 * Royal Rapier
 * Swashbuckler: A classic example.
 * Sword Fight
 * Throwing Down the Gauntlet
 * The Trickster: Andre
 * Upperclass Twit: Andre, at first.