Can You Do the Fandango?

Scaramouche (1952) rounds out the set of swashbucklers we've been watching, starting with Fanfan le Tulipe and continuing with Cartouche. They are all set in pre-Revolutionary France, and feature roguish heroes with at least two women. 

In this case, the hero is Stewart Granger, who strikes me as a sort of Jimmy Stewart mixed with Cary Grant (footnote: I just checked wikipedia - he was actual christened James Stewart!). But first we meet the villain, Mel Ferrer, a French nobleman. We see him killing or wounding several men in consecutive duels as a troop of horsemen ride up to summon him to the Queen. So right off the bat, we have swordfights and galloping horsemen. The Queen, Marie Antoinette played by Nina Foche, wants to marry him off to one of her attendants, Janet Leigh. He is obedient, if not ardent.

We find Granger in a camp of travelling actors, looking for his girlfriend, Eleanor Parker. They tell him she is getting married, so he heads off to break it up and marry her himself. But before he can make good on the second part, he finds out that his friend Richard Anderson is in trouble. He has been distributing revolutionary pamphlets. So he goes to aid him, but they are caught by, of course, Mel Ferrer, the greatest swordsman in France. So Anderson is killed and when Granger tries to avenge him, he is disarmed and humiliated.

Somewhere in here, we learn that Granger has been receiving money all his life on the condition that he never seek out his real father - but when the money stops, he beats the name out of his lawyer. Then he meets and falls in love with Janet Leigh - and finds out that she is his half-sister, which dampens his spirits. The idea that she is supposed to marry his deadly enemy doesn't do wonders for him either.

He goes into hiding with his girlfriend's theatrical troupe, who specialize in commedia del'arte, a very stylized form of Italian slapstick. You know, Harlequin, Columbine, Pierrot, Toby the dog, those clowns. He played Scaramouche, and kept his mask on as much as possible. 

So, to cut to the chase, he learns to swordfight and finally encounters Ferrer at a performance. This leads to the famous fight scene, with swinging on curtain ropes, fights through the hteater boxes, out to the halls, through the theater and onto the stage. In a movie full of fights and chases, this is a great topper. I won't tell you who comes out victorious though. I won't say which girl he gets either. See for yourself.