THE BLACK ROSE (20th Century-Fox 1950) Fox Home Video

Based on Thomas B. Costain’s novel, Henry Hathaway’s The Black Rose (1950) is an absurd and wholly unconvincing would-be epic still attempting to promote Tyrone Power as the male ingenue on which his earliest days at Fox were founded and, indeed, greatly benefited. Like other stars who served their country during WWII, Power’s absence from the screen to do his duty resulted in life-altering experiences abroad that forever changed his outlook as a movie star, once back on native American soil and expected to take up where he had left off before the cameras. And like other returning screen he-men, Power was also older now. Although only 36 in 1950, Power, after the war, looked as though he was already well over the hump of forty. A lot of mileage had been put on that frame. As such, Power just looks silly throughout The Black Rose, squeezed into flamboyant costumes and turbans for which he had once appeared to exude a rare and exhilarating male exoticism in movies like 1939’s The Rains Came, but now looks as though someone has attempted to costume a pharmacist as an Arabian prince. The Black Rose is in rougher shape still, in that it tries – without much success – to turn back the hands of time to that golden epoch in picture-making when such escapist fantasies could be sold as a bill of goods to the public at large, ready and willing to eat such nonsense up.  

We begin in England, where Saxon bastard, Walter of Gurnie (Tyrone Power) has returned to his father’s house for the reading of his Will, only to discover he has been left nothing but his pater’s boots and a last request to join the alliance of the new Normand King of England, Edward (Michael Rennie). At least, that is how things appear on the surface. Bitter, Walter vows to leave England forever with fellow social outcast and superb archer, Tristram Griffin (Jack Hawkins). Together, the men journey all the way to the Far East where they encounter the marauding desert pirates overseen by the Bayan (Orson Welles in a grotesquely ‘over the top’ performance). Impressed with Walter’s gallantry – though nevertheless unable to comprehend it – the Bayan employs him as a scholarly guide to aid in his crusade against China after Tristram wins an archery contest in the Bayan’s camp. If you think the story is already weird, it gets positively ridiculous with the introduction of Maryam (Cecile Aubry), a white girl who speaks broken English and is imprisoned by the Bayan, and, known only to others at camp as ‘the black rose.’ Impersonating a servant boy, Maryam escapes the Bayan and hides in Walter and Tristram’s tent, a move to spell certain death for all if she is discovered. But who has time to go searching for an errant girl when there is the whole of China to conquer?

Tristram and Walter quarrel and part company, the former leaving with Maryam while Walter pursues the Bayan’s campaign of carnage against the Chinese. Eventually, the Bayan sends Walter on a mission to enter the Forbidden City. Regrettably, Walter is apprehended by the Chinese and imprisoned along with Tristram and Maryam in the palace by the Empress, who believes that their white skin is an omen of sacred protection for her people against the Bayan’s forces. The narrative, such as it is, is condensed so virtually no time is allotted to further flesh out or even explain any of these individual threads. Instead, the audience is moved through a rapid succession of unprepossessing vignettes that are episodic at best and really do not make much sense when strung together. As the Englishman who renounces his country, then miraculously comes to his senses and rejoins his people and his King back home, Power looks quite silly and unconvincing in his Arab garb. Orson Welles is barely recognizable as the Bayan, overplaying his hand with ham acting run amok. Cecile Aubry is not a very compelling heroine. There is virtually no sex appeal to the scenes she shares with Power and their on-screen chemistry is practically nonexistent. Quite frankly, we get more emotional attachment in the bro-mantic chemistry between Walter and Tristram.

Fox Home Video’s DVD is a tad disappointing. Little has been done to restore or preserve the film’s Technicolor palette. Colors are inconsistently rendered and can appear quite blocky and thick at times. Flesh tones are either garishly pink or overly orange. The image fluctuates from reasonably sharp and nicely contrasted, to darkly rendered with clotted up colors and an inherent loss of fine detail. The Dolby Digital audio has been re-channeled to stereo. The original mono is also represented. A brief featurette with the surviving members of Tyrone Power’s immediate family, a stills gallery and theatrical trailer are the only extras.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

2.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

3

EXTRAS

2.5