What a gorgeous-looking production this is. The story, such as it is, is set in the European country of Saronia, where the people are in revolutionary mood, and the king is worried that his son (Charles de Rochefort) is too distracted by the arts to inherit the burdens of state. He arranges marriage for his son with a princess (Huguette Duflos), but the couple are split up when the palace succumbs to the revolutionary crowd. What happens next should not be given away, since it involves a neat twist of plot and character, but the real pleasure of this slight but charming film lies in its sumptuous settings, glittering dresses and graceful manner. Maurice Velle, son of Gaston, was co-cinematographer on the film, made at around the time he first met his partner British scriptwriter Mary Murillo, recently returned from her successful time in America. She appears to have been responsible also for the English intertitles, since she was working for the film’s British distributor, Stoll. That this is something of a family affair might be seen in the loving recreation of a Parisian theatre, of the kind in which Velle’s magician father would once have appeared, while there is a sly in-joke reference to a Murillo painting, a rare personal signature from a screenwriter at any time. There are logical gaps to the background story (why is the new king able to return to the country so easily after the revolution?), but they matter not. This is lavish froth of a most enjoyable kind.

Luke McKernan