Scaramouche

Scaramouche is a 1952 romantic swashbuckler film starring Stewart Granger, Eleanor Parker, Janet Leigh, and Mel Ferrer. Filmed in Technicolor, the MGM production is loosely based on the 1921 novel Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini as well as the 1923 film version starring Ramon Novarro. It was directed by George Sidney and produced by Carey Wilson from a screenplay by Ronald Millar and George Froeschel. The original music score was composed by Victor Young and the cinematography by Charles Rosher. Plot In France just prior to the French Revolution, Queen Marie Antoinette asks her cousin Noel, the Marquis de Maynes, to uncover the identity of "Marcus Brutus", a dangerous pamphleteer rousing hatred of the aristocracy. She also pressures de Maynes to marry to preserve his line, and at his request for her to choose his bride is introduced to Aline de Gavrilac, one of the Queen's wards. Meanwhile, minor nobleman André Moreau kidnaps his beloved Lenore to keep her from marrying another man. After the two decide to get married, Moreau learns that his best man, Philippe de Valmorin, is in hiding for promoting revolution and distributing pamphlets under the allonym Marcus Brutus. Moreau tells de Valmorin to leave Paris, taking Lenore with him. At the same time, Moreau visits his lawyer, Fabien, and forcefully threatens him to disclose the name of his father in order to learn why he has stopped sending an allowance. When Moreau and de Valmorin rendezvous in the woods, it is without Lenore, who, not knowing the identity or motive of de Valmorin, escaped the carriage. They continue on their journey to meet Moreau's father, who is revealed to be the Comte de Gavrillac. Moreau runs into Aline de Gavrillac when her carriage breaks down in the road. They are strongly attracted to each other, but Moreau's ardor suddenly cools when he learns that she is his half-sister. He hides that information from her, partly because of sympathy, when they both enter the House of Gavrillac to see that the Comte has died. By chance, de Maynes encounters de Valmorin. A master swordsman, de Maynes provokes de Valmorin into a duel, then toys with his inexperienced opponent before finally killing him. Enraged, Moreau attacks, but does no better than his dead friend. After de Maynes easily disarms him several times, Moreau seizes a pistol and vows to kill de Maynes the same way he slew de Valmorin, then flees for his life.