The Pearls of the Crown

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The Pearls of the Crown - Wikipedia

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The Pearls of the Crown

Directed by	Sacha Guitry Christian-Jaque
Written by	Sacha Guitry Christian-Jaque
Produced by	Serge Sandberg
Starring	Jacqueline Delubac Sacha Guitry Lyn Harding Renée Saint-Cyr
Cinematography	Jules Kruger
Edited by	Myriam Borsoutsky William Barache
Music by	Jean Françaix
Production companies	Cinéas Impérial Film
Distributed by	Films Sonores Tobis
Release date	12 May 1937 (1937-05-12)
Running time	118 minutes
Country	France
Languages	French English Italian

The Pearls of the Crown (French: Les Perles de la couronne) is a 1937 French comedy film of historically based fiction by Sacha Guitry who plays four roles in it (many of the other performers play multiple roles, as well).^[1] Guitry's Jean Martin investigates the history of seven pearls, four of which end up on the crown of England, while the other three initially go missing.^[2]

It was made at the Billancourt Studios in Paris with location shooting at a variety of sites including the Abbaye de Royaumont, the Château de Louveciennes and aboard the S.S. Normandie. The film's sets were designed by the art director Jean Perrier.^{[citation needed]}

Plot

Tracing the history of seven valuable pearls of the English Crown from the time of Henry VIII of England to the present day (1937). Writer Jean Martin (Sacha Guitry) attempts to track down three of the missing pearls by tracing their previous owners, with events seen in flashback, involving Napoleon, King Henry VIII and Elizabeth I of England amongst others.

Cast

Sacha Guitry as Jean Martin/François I/Viscount Barras/Old Napoleon III
Jacqueline Delubac as Françoise Martin/Mary, Queen of Scots/Josephine
Lyn Harding as John Russell/Henry VIII
Renée Saint-Cyr as Madeleine de la Tour d'Auvergne
Enrico Glori as Pope's Chamberlain
Ermete Zacconi as Pope Clement VII
Barbara Shaw as Anne Boleyn
Marguerite Moreno as Catherine de'Medici/Empress Eugenie
Arletty as Queen of Abyssinia
Marcel Dalio as Abyssinian Minister/Jewel Seller
Claude Dauphin as Italian in Abyssinia
Robert Seller as Englishman in Abyssinia
Ponzio as Singing worker
Andrews Engelmann as The Lead Robber
Yvette Pienne as Queen Mary I of England (Mary Tudor)/Queen Elizabeth I/Queen Victoria
Raimu as Industrialist
Lisette Lanvin as Femme du monde/Reine Victoria
Pierre Juvenet as The Expert
Henri Crémieux as Auctioneer
Aimé Simon-Girard as Henri IV
Germaine Aussey as Gabrielle d'Estrées
Simone Renant as Madame Du Barry
Damia as Woman of the People
Di Mazzei as Sans-coulotte
Jean-Louis Barrault as Lorenzo de Medicia/Young Bonaparte
Robert Pizani as Talleyrand
Émile Drain as Napoleon I (1815)
Huguette Duflos as Queen Hortense
Raymonde Allain as Empress Eugenie (1865)
Violet Farebrother as An Old Lady
Rosine Deréan as Young girl/Catherine d'Aragon
Marie Leconte as A Woman in Misery
Pierre Magnier as An Old Lord
Cécile Sorel as A Courtesan (5th billed in star credit!)
Lillie Grandval as Opera Soprano
Jean Coquelin as An Old man
Gaston Dubosc as A Grand Duke
Pauline Carton as Femme du Chambre
Anaclara as La négresse
Colette Borelli as Mary Stuart (girl)
Julien Clément as Le gigolo
Marfa d'Hervilly as La vieille courtisane
Denis de Marney as Darnley
Aline Debray
Dynalik as Le petit rat
Georges Fels as ?
Eugénie Fougère as La vieille coquette
Gary Garland as Une passagère sur le Normandie
Anthony Gildès as Le vieil hongrois
Georges Grey as Le jeune hongrois
Geneviève Guitry as ?
Lautner as Le Titien
Oléo as La petite poule
Jacqueline Pacaud as Jane Seymour
Annie Rozanne as ?
Léon Walther as Anne de Montmorency
Laurence Atkins as Madame Tallien/Madame d'Estampes
Jacques Berlioz as ?
? as Hipollite
Humberto Catalano as Spanelli (uncredited!)
James Craven as Hans Holbein
Derrick De Marney as Darnley
Fred Duprez as An American
Romuald Joubé as Clouet
Darling Légitimus as ?
Percy Marmont as Cardinal Wolsey
Paulette Élambert as Catherine de Medici (girl)

Critical reception

Writing for Night and Day in 1937, Graham Greene gave the film a good review claiming that it "entertained me even more than it irritated me". Admitting some degree of distaste in director Guitry's general style and demeanor, Greene found admiration in Guitry's "ingenious[] attempts to give a wider circulation to a French picture by working the story out in three languages" and described his use of language in certain scenes as "cunningly and quite naturally arranged". Greene praised the story and the acting of Guitry and Delubac.^[3]

TV Guide gave the film three out of four stars, writing, "Although Guitry chose to push the audience's patience a bit by filming the story in three languages, PEARLS OF THE CROWN is one of his finest works, and perhaps his least theatrical. (In French, Italian, and English; English subtitles)."^[4]

References

^ "Les PERLES DE LA COURONNE (1937)". Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
^ "Les Perles De La Couronne (1937) - Christian-Jaque, Sacha Guitry - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related - AllMovie". AllMovie. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
^ Greene, Graham (21 October 1937). "Les Perles de la Couronne/Exclusive". Night and Day. (reprinted in: Taylor, John Russell, ed. (1980). The Pleasure Dome. Oxford University Press. p. 175. ISBN 0192812866.)
^ "Pearls Of The Crown". TVGuide.com. Retrieved 3 June 2017.

External links

The Pearls of the Crown at IMDb

v t e Sacha Guitry
Plays and films
Stage works	Le Scandale de Monte-Carlo (1908) Let's Make a Dream (1916) Deburau (1918) L'amour masqué (1923) Mozart (1925) N'écoutez pas, mesdames ! (1942)
Films directed	Good Luck (1935) Pasteur (1935) Confessions of a Cheat (1936) My Father Was Right (1936) The New Testament (1936) Désiré (1937) The Pearls of the Crown (1937) Quadrille (1938) Nine Bachelors (1939) Le Destin fabuleux de Désirée Clary (1942) My Last Mistress (1943) The Lame Devil (1948) Toâ (1949) Two Doves (1949) The Treasure of Cantenac (1950) Deburau (1951) La Poison (1951) Je l'ai été trois fois (1952) The Virtuous Scoundrel (1953) Royal Affairs in Versailles (1954) Napoléon (1955) If Paris Were Told to Us (1956) Lovers and Thieves (1956) Three Make a Pair (1957)
Screenplays	Life Together (1958)

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