Big budget swashbuckling epics saw a brief revival in 1952, with Burt Lancaster in The Crimson Pirate and Stewart Granger in Scaramouche.
Scaramouche was yet another successful Hollywood adaptation of a Rafael Sabatini novel, following The Sea Hawk, Captain Blood, and The Black Swan. Sabatini had lived to see most of these films, but having died in 1950, he missed out on the technicolor version of Scaramouche. 1950 was also the year that Granger became a major action star, due to his leading role in King Solomon's Mines.
The film takes place in 1790s France during the early years of its revolution. Andre Moreau (Granger) vows to avenge the death in a duel of his radical best friend (Richard Anderson) at the hands of scornful aristocrat Noel (Mel Ferrer). While Moreau trains to be a champion fencer, Noel further embitters Moreau by becoming engaged to his belated sister, Aline (Janet Leigh).
Scaramouche trivializes the French Revolution, making it seem like a gentlemen's disagreement between aristocrats of greater and lesser wealth. The romance is also fluff: after selfishly preventing the favorable marriage of Lenore (Eleanor Parker), the womanizing Moreau falls into instant mutual love with Aline. Both Aline and Moreau then have subsequent (if reluctant) romances, before convenient plot twists allow their reunion.
But it is for its swashbuckling action that people went to see Scaramouche. The climactic battle between Moreau and Noel lasts for more than six minutes, which according to Hollywood legend is the longest uncut swordfight. (Close-ups were later spliced in.) With perennial villain Basil Rathbone having grown too old for the role, Mel Ferrer does well as the cocky, sadistic Noel. But in a pleasing departure from formula, he's not completely a bad sort. He's just on the wrong side.
Stewart Granger is not to be confused with Farley Granger, whose famous film from the previous year was Strangers on a Train. Mel Ferrer is not to be confused with Jose Ferrer, who had played noted Frenchmen Charles VII, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Cyrano de Bergerac in then recent big budget films.
The best swashbuckling epic that I have seen is The Mark of Zorro (1940). Douglas Fairbanks Jr. also makes a fine Zorro in the 1920 silent version. Scaramouche itself was originally filmed as a silent, in 1923. While I have not seen this film, it is said to be less shallow (and better) than the technicolor remake. Lewis Stone appears in both versions, first as the villain Noel, then some thirty years later as Moreau's adoptive father. (59/100)
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