Diane ** (1956, Lana Turner, Pedro Armendáriz, Roger Moore, Cedric Hardwicke, Henry Daniell, Marisa Pavan, Torin Thatcher, Taina Elg) – Classic Movie Review 6702

Christopher Isherwood, the esteemed British author of Goodbye to Berlin, had a bumpy ride as a screenwriter in Hollywood, though he was very thankful for it because it paid many of his bills. Director David Miller’s 1956 film Diane is Isherwood’s only solo credit as a screenwriter. He said he was proud of his screenplay but that it had been spoiled by MGM’s lack of faith in the film and by miscasting – he had hoped that Ingrid Bergman and Julie Harris would star.

However, it is hard to detect his novel’s wit, subtlety and sophistication in his screenplay (adapted from the story by John Erskine) for this 1955 16th-century France historical costume romantic drama about Diane de Poitiers and King Francis I (1494-1547).

The young Roger Moore plays France’s Henry II (1519-59).

The peculiar casting of Lana Turner and Pedro Armendáriz in these roles does not help matters one iota. And that is a young Roger Moore as France’s Henry II (1519-59), cringing under a huge, silly hat, and even more uncomfortable when wrestling in medieval knickers. Moore’s reward for this performance was to have his seven year contract with MGM terminated after only two years. And it was also Turner’s last film under her MGM contract. Edmund Purdom was to play Henry II but Turner opposed his casting, and she and Moore got on famously.

MGM suffered a huge financial failure on this film. However, the considerable pluses in this men in tights movie are David Miller’s earnest direction, the beautiful and meticulous MGM production under producer Edwin H Knopf, Cedric Gibbons and Hans Peters’s lovely set designs, Miklos Rozsa’s fine, swirling music score, Robert H Planck’s Eastmancolor and CinemaScope widescreen cinematography, and the distinguished support actors, particularly Cedric Hardwicke and Henry Daniell, but also Marisa Pavan (as Catherine de Medici), Torin Thatcher, Taina Elg, John Lupton, Ronald Green, Paul Cavanagh, Melville Cooper and Ian Wolfe.

Also in the cast are Christopher Dark, Marc Cavell, Stuart Whitman, Percy Helton, Robert Dix, James Drury, Sean McClory, Geoffrey Toone, Michael Ansara and Basil Ruysdael.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6702

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Pedro Armendáriz with Lana Turner in Diane in 1956.