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Frenchman's
Creek
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 Frenchman's CreekParamount
This one is made for the eye The story is a treatment of Daphne du Maurier's novel of the same title which did very well with a big readership which was not looking for exercise beyond the requirements of the tired housewife. The picture follows the novel, with the slight addition of one scoundrel of deepest dye. It has been painted with a lavish pallette, and a vast generosity in production treatment. Among the good things are Joan Fontaine, to whom to the Technicolor camera makes love in terms any eye can comprehend; Arturo de Cordova, who's been much in the newsprints and measures up to their promise; Nigel Bruce, Basil Rathbone, Cecil Kellaway and other able players. On the good side, also, are interiors and exteriors of magnificent kind and heroic proportions, fascinatingly photographed, and such a wealth of costumery, properties and expensive impedimenta as seldom are placed at a producer's disposal. There is also the fact that it's a sheer entertainment film sent into a market requiring entertainment. Miss du Maurier's novel is about a pirate who did his stuff along the coast of England in 1664, when the men of England dressed and often behaved like women, and that's a far period in which to interest a public thinking now of England as a very different kind of place. In short, it's a costume picture, a period play, and the action in it does not resemble what goes on in the same area now. The pirate is a sweet sort of fellow, courtly and gallant like the ones in children's picture books, and he does his swashbuckling almost totally by word of mouth and in the past tense. Others profess to be afraid of him, but he gives the audience no reason for being so, and there's never a moment when anyone can doubt the the lovely lady who sails with him on a small raid is going to suffer anything worse than catching a cold. As has happened before, perhaps for identical or similar reasons, the heroic proportions of the production itself are stronger than the story about the people concerned. One of the reasons might be that the Production Code doesn't allow even a 17th-century pirate to wax as devilish as he does in the pages of a book, although the screenplaywright, Talbot Jennings, and the producer, David Lewis, did what they could about this by supplying another character with lust enough for a scene such as hasn't been screened since two-reeler villains used to chase heroines 'round and 'round the parlor furniture. The tale presents Miss Fontaine as
wife of a noble no-good who wants her to be sweet to a gambling pal
with a yen for her. She declines and goes to her country place, near
which is parked a French pirate whose cut-throats sing lovely songs
in close harmony, and the two of them get together romantically with
the collaboration of a servant who's a jewel of understanding. She
disguises herself as a boy and goes with the pirate on a raid, a
dialogue line explaining later that nothing not nice takes place
between them, but after they get back the pirate is captured and she
has to fenagle an escape for him. That accomplished, she tells him
she can't go one with him because she's got two children who need
her so he goes on out to sea again Exploitation that emphasizes the names of the distinguished personnel, the magnitude of production and the lavishness of its Technicolor, appears assured to get a maximum number of customers in to see the picture. It's been so long since they've had a pirate picture to look at, and this is such a big one. Mitchell Leisen directed with deliberation and vast attention to detail. Reviewer's Rating: Good.
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With the gallant Frenchman as tutor, Dona learns about birds and fishing, and learns to love the simple life. She feels light-hearted, happy and peaceful. Because they are both fugitives, there is a bond between Dona and the Frenchman. Both wanderers, cast in the same mould. They fall in love. When the Frenchman sails to steal ship from a town up the coast, Dona sails with him and is thrilled with the adventure. The Lady St. Columb who sups cheek by jowl with the ladies of the town and later roisters about the streets of London no longer exists.
After Dona's return from the plundering of the ship, she learns to her dismay that her husband and Lord Rockingham have arrived at Navron. Not only are they breaking her peace, but they are gathering the men of the nearby towns and setting a trap for the Frenchman! Dona sends William, her servant, to the ship to warn the Frenchman to sail right away to avoid capture. William returns with the distressing news that the ship is grounded and cannot sail until after midnight. Since the men are gathering for dinner at Navron before going out to hunt the pirate, Dona determines to keep them at the table as long as possible. She keeps their wine glasses full and entertains them.
 Rock thinks he is irresistable. |
 Gotta love that wig! |
For some unexplained reason Lord Rockingham is not wearing a wig at dinner, but all the other men do. Dona is charming with her guests, even Rock, whom she despises. Rock flirts with Dona, as though he wishes every man at the table to believe he makes love to her.
Arriving
at the manor at midnight the Frenchman and his crew surprise Dona's
dinner guests and take their weapons. Rock sees the way Dona looks at the
Frenchman and, with his uncanny intuition, he realizes that she loves the
pirate. The men are tied up and the Frenchman takes Dona into the salon to
talk with her privately. While Dona and the pirate talk, the Cornish
noblemen manage to loosen their bonds and slip out the window after the
pirates
 "Frenchman's Creek"COSTUME DRAMA RICH IN ROMANCE AND SWORD PLAY IS ESCAPIST STUFF WITH B.O. PUNCH. "Frenchman's Creek," derived from the Daphne du Maurier best-selling novel of the same name, is a romantic tale of the days of Charles II of England that is escapist entertainment of the first grade. Produced in the grand manner and impressive in its physical aspects, the picture should prove a solid click at the box office. Under the watchful eyes of Executive Producer B.G. DeSylva and Associate Producer David Lewis, the film resolves itself into a Technicolor spectacle that employs hues with stunning effect. The story never loses its interest as it moves from one dramatic incident to another in its course of high adventure. While the tale holds the women with its story of the love of an English noblewoman for a bold, dashing pirate from the shores of France, it bids for the attention of the men with its display of violent action in which sword play figures prominently. The chief scene of action is the Cornish Coast. It is there that Joan Fontaine, as the lady of high estate seeking an escape from the stupid and dull life of London society, meets Arturo de Cordova, the pirate lover. Much of the action has to do with the efforts of the English gentry to capture the pirate and string him up. Miss Fontaine has her brief moment of happiness with de Cordova, her duty to her children (she's married to Ralph Forbes) compelling her to part from him at the end. Miss Fontaine and de Cordova enact the lovers satisfactorily. Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Cecil Kellaway are others who stand out. Mitchell Leisen directed the Talbot Jennings screenplay with distinction. DIRECTION, Fine. PHOTOGRAPHY, Superb.
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Rockingham threatens Dona with being hanged along with the pirate, and she doesn't care.
He says, "Yes, you would suffer that, wouldn't you, and be glad, because you've had, at last, the
love you've wanted all your life."
She admits this is true and Rockingham goes berserk. "If you hadn't
left London and come down here," he hisses, "it would have been me!" "Never!" she
cries.
 Dona and Rockingham at Navron |
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Rockingham lunges at her, trying to strangle her. She manages to grab a knife and stab him, and then runs to the stairs. Even though he's badly wounded, Rockingham struggles to crawl up the stairs after Dona. In the novel Dona throws a heavy shield at him; in the movie she pushes over a suit of armor. Either way Rockingham is knocked down and killed.
When Sir Harry returns, he is aghast to find Rock dead. Harry thinks that Rock died defending Dona against the pirate. In the book she never corrected him. But in the film she says right away, "I killed Rockingham ... I had to. I warned you to keep him away from me." Harry also informs Dona that the Frenchman has been captured and will hang in the morning.
Dona St. Columb concocts an ingenious plan to rescue the Frenchman, and he believes she is going to sail with him back to Brittany. But in the end Dona decides she cannot leave her children, even though she loves the Frenchman, and it breaks her heart to watch him sail away.
 Frenchman's Creek"Frenchman's Creek" is a 17th century romance about the lady and the pirate, beautifully Technicolored and lavishly mounted, which should fit into the present-day escapist idiom. As such, it will do business. No smash, but the Joan Fontaine name for the marquee, the ballyhoopla attendant to building Arturo de Cordova into a male draw, the Daphne duMaurier ("Rebecca") authorship, combined with the elaborate Mitchell Leisen production, should make for b.o. attention. Film reputedly cost over $3,000,000 to produce. Paramount's costliest investment in history. It doesn't quite look that expensive, but it's understandable that much back-of-the-scene travail and delay could fast mount the costs. The romantic pirate from France who invades the Cornish coast of England, hiding his frigate in what thus becomes known as Frenchman's Creek, plays his role with all the musical comedy bravado the part calls for. In truth, if the public accepts the cinematurgy in that frivolous, musicomedy manner, the picture is a cinch to become a winner. The romance is supposedly forthright and played straight. Miss Fontaine seeks refuge in the Cornish castle to get away from a stupid husband (Ralph Forbes) and a ducal menace. The scoundrelly servant at the Cornish retreat is actually the pirate chief's hireling, and the romance between the two, including a de-Haysized idyll on his piratical schooner over-night, is but one of a sequence of similar adventures. All the trappings of the period are interlarded in this tale of hijacking an English pirate's vessel, loaded with booty from the Indies; bearding the irate English gentry in their lair; duelling against odds; the inevitable arrest and escape to the high seas, leaving Miss Fontaine and de Cordova mooning at each other through the sails and halliards. It is a romantic picture of love torn asunder by the conventions are her two children. The performances are sometimes unconsciously tongue-in-cheek, but withal come off well. Cecil Kellaway is particularly good as the servant. Miss Fontaine is beauteously titian and desirable as the romantically torn wife, and de Cordova gets his role off well albeit not altogether convincingly. He has yet to prove himself truly socko as a male pash. Nigel Bruce, Basil Rathbone and Forbes are otherwise satisfactory, especially Bruce. Rathbone is too leeringly the lecherous menace, and Forbes too much the dolt. The scripting at times borders on the ludicrous, especially when almost all the sympathetic figures wax near hysteria in their scoffing at the dangers which may beset them. Productionally it is ultra. And no minor assist is that excellent Victor Young score. Abel.
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This drawing by Feg Murray shows a scene from Frenchman's Creek in which Dona manages to stab Rockingham in the back:
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