The Pearls of the Crown (“Les perles de la couronne”)
Directed by Sacha Guitry
Written by Sacha Guitry and Christian-Jacque
1937/France
Cineás
First viewing
[box] “The little I know I owe to my ignorance.” — Sacha Guitry[/box]
This long historical shaggy dog tail lacks some of the sparkle of The Story of a Cheat but is still amusing.
The narrator (Guitry) traces the history of the four perfectly matched pear-shaped pearls in the English crown from their origin in the court of Pope Clement VII through a complicated series of events that had them switch hands from Catherine de Medici to Mary Stuart to Elizabeth I to Queen Victoria. A group of men then undertakes to discover what happened to three other pearls of the set that were “lost”. These have an even more romantic and bizarre history.
Most of the French character actors from the classics appear somewhere or other in this multi-character extravaganza. Some play several parts. It’s a fun watch, if perhaps a little slow in places.
Clip – Sorry, no subtitles
