The Black Tulip [La Tulipe Noir] *** (1963, Alain Delon, Virna Lisi, Dawn Addams, Akim Tamiroff) – Classic Movie Review 5670

The young Alain Delon cuts a glorious dash – or a couple of dashes – in a twin roles as French brothers Julien and Guillaume de Saint-Preux in this entertaining French remake version of the Alexandre Dumas swashbuckler adventure novel La Tulipe Noir, though the fanciful script bears little relation to Dumas’s story.

Cruel twin Guillaume is actually a bandit named the Black Tulip, masked lover of justice, in 1789 at the time of the French Revolution. He holds the area round the village of Roussillon in fear as a revolutionary, though the poor people respect him as a French Robin Hood. But Guillaume has to call on his idealistic brother Julien’s help when he gets a giveaway cut across his cheek in a fight with the Baron La Mouche, who schemes to arrest him.

Co-writer/ director Christian-Jaque’s 1963 film has plenty of thrills, romance and derring-do, and is enlivened by an amusingly flowery performance from Akim Tamiroff as the Marquis de Vigogne, who thinks that Delon’s Guillaume de Saint-Preux is a fanatical monarchist. But Guillaume is having a love affair his wife, La marquise Catherine de Vigogne (Dawn Addams). Julien, on the other hand, meets the lovely revolutionary ‘Caro’ Plantin (Virna Lisi), and they fall in love.

Also in the cast are Francis Blanche as the revolutionary leader Plantin, Adolfo Marsillach as Baron La Mouche, Laura Valenzuela as Lisette, Yvan Chiffre, Santiago Ontañon, Robert Manuel, José Jaspe as Brignon and George Rigaud as the Chief of Police.

It was filmed by director Alex Bryce as The Black Tulip in 1937, a little British ‘quota quickie’ with a star role for the character actor Patrick Waddington.

Christian-Jaque was Christian Maudet (1904–1994).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5670

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