Peereddi I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

JohnHowardReid Ramon Novarro (André-Louis), Alice Terry (Aline), Lewis Stone (the marquis), Lloyd Ingraham (André's godfather), Julia Swayne Gordon (the countess), William Humphrey (the chevalier), Otto Mattiesen (de Vilmorin), George Siegmann (Danton), Bowditch Turner (Le Chapelier), James A. Marcus (Binet), Edith Allen (Climene Binet), Lydia Yeamans Titus (Madame Binet), John George (little man in the Binet company), Nelson McDowell (Rhodomont), De Garcia Fuerberg (Robespierre), Roy Coulson (Murat), Edwin Argus (King Louis), Clothilde Delano (Marie Antoinette), Willard Lee Hall (king's lieutenant), Skavko Vorkapich (Napoleon Bonaparte), Lorimer Johnstone (Count Dupuye), Edwin Connelly (king's minister), Howard Gaye (Viscount d'Albert), William Dyer (brutal gamekeeper), J. Edward Brown (Benoit), Carrie Clarke Ward (Madame Benoit), Edward Coxen (Jacques), Rose Dione (flag- bearer of the Revolution), Arthur Jasmine (student), Tom Kennedy (dragoon), Carrie Daumery (gossip), Kalla Pasha (gate guard), B. Hyman, Louise Carver, Snitz Edwards, David Sharpe, Marjorie Reynolds, Jacques Tourneur.Director: REX INGRAM. Screenplay: Willis Goldbeck. Based on the 1921 novel by Rafael Sabatini. Photography: John F. Seitz. Film editor: Grant Whytock. Art directors: John J. Hughes, Amos Meyers, Harold Grieve. Costumes designed by O'Kane Cornwell, Eve Roth, Van Horn. Titles designed by J. W. Robson. Production manager: Curt Rehfeld. Assistant director: Arthur Smith. Producer: Rex Ingram. A Rex Ingram Production for Metro Pictures.Copyright 10 October 1923. New York opening at the 44th Street Theatre: 30 September 1923. 10 reels. 9,850 feet. 124 minutes. COMMENT: A superb, wonderfully faithful, brilliantly directed, awesomely expensive condensation of the Sabatini novel which makes the 1952 re-make look like a shoestring effort. All the players acquit themselves with honor, although Lewis Stone succeeds in dominating the movie with his chilling impersonation of the callous marquis whose beautiful manners mask an intransigent heart. The sets are out of this world, the photography breathtaking. And Alice Terry looks stunningly radiant in her gorgeous costumes.

MissSimonetta Before anyone gets angry from the summary title, let me say this: I really enjoy the 1952 Scaramouche. It's the perfect remedy for stress, Eleanor Parker is gorgeous, the fencing is great, and overall it's one of my favorite adventure flicks from the 1950s. However, it doesn't work nearly as well as this silent adaptation does. This Rex Ingram adaptation has more focus on character development and the historical setting of the French Revolution which make it a more mature and engaging experience.Ramon Novarro gives one of his greatest performances as the passionate and witty Andre Moreau. It makes me sad that he didn't get to do many more swashbuckling parts like this. Lewis Stone is also worthy of praise: though he could have just hammed it up and called it a day, he brings depth to the villainous Marquis. Alice Terry is given little to work with as the love interest Aline, but she does portray the character's struggle between ambition and love well.Rex Ingram's films are usually beautiful, but this is the most gorgeous I've seen yet. The sets and costumes fit the period. Most classic films time stamp their historical pictures by letting modern day fashions seep through. Fortunately, this is not the case here.And of course there's all the swashbuckling and adventure you could ask for. There's no climactic lengthy duel in a playhouse as there is in the talkie remake, but the amazing mob scenes are enough to compensate. There's so much energy in them that you cannot help but be swept up. The fencing is excellent too.This is one of the best silent epics there is. If you liked the remake and would like to see a more serious, novel-accurate version, then get your hands on this right away!

mukava991 Hats off to Rex Ingram. Scaramouche, like his other gorgeously mounted adventure sagas The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Prisoner of Zenda, or Ben-Hur (which he co-directed) illustrate clearly how the art of cinema took a body blow with the coming of sound, recovery from which took several years. The kinds of stunning compositions and environmental detail that were possible before the soundtrack era had to be jettisoned just for the sake of miking, so we lost much of this intensive artistry. Visually this film is every bit as impressive as Selznick's A Tale of Two Cities, or Korda's The Scarlet Pimpernel, both made well into the sound era over a decade later. Ingram was a visionary, right up there with Griffith, Stroheim and early DeMille. This film is beautiful right down to the title cards.In this tale of the French Revolution we are treated to large doses of "The Masses," as in the later Selznick Tale of Two Cities. In fact, these masses are so vividly presented that one suspects that Selznick borrowed some of his imagery from Ingram. Like The Scarlet Pimpernel, Scaramouche is a participant in the events of the era. But whereas the Pimpernel used ingenious disguises and impersonations to save selected aristocrats from the guillotine, Scaramouche uses his position as popular comedic stage actor and skilled swordsman to rouse the masses to revolutionary action and successfully duel to the death with reactionary members of the National Assembly. Ramon Novarro, who plays the title character, was second only to Valentino as a heartthrob of the silent era but his countenance and manner were gentler. Lewis Stone, best known for his stern but benign elder patriarch roles in talkies, was once the dashing, chiselled-featured leading man on display here. Alice Terry as the love interest reminds us of how cinematic standards of beauty have changed. Her costuming and coiffure notwithstanding, there is a pre-20th-century quality to her, as if she stepped out of a painting or daguerrotype.

Ron Oliver Fleeing from the wrath of the vengeful Nobility, a young Frenchman joins a troupe of actors. Winning fame as the clown SCARAMOUCHE, the stalwart fellow finds himself drawn into the events surrounding the start of the Revolution.Following his big movie hit of the previous year - 1922's THE PRISONER OF ZENDA - director Rex Ingram discovered that cinematic lightning could indeed strike twice with this very fine adaptation of Rafael Sabatini's swashbuckling novel, "Scaramouche." Metro gave the production a high gloss, with excellent atmospherics, richly detailed exteriors & rousing mob scenes. It is always refreshing, in any epic film, to see every penny the studio invested represented on the screen.Ingram reunited his principal cast from ZENDA - Ramon Novarro, Lewis Stone & Alice Terry - as stars for SCARAMOUCHE. Novarro, taking the hero role this time, proved he was no flash in the pan. Equally adept as sensitive lover or dueling revolutionary, with this performance Novarro was catapulted to Hollywood's upper ranks. Stone gives a finely nuanced performance as the villain of the story, slowly revealing layers to the man's personality not readily apparent at first. Miss Terry, who was Ingram's wife, is lovely, but the plot gives her little to do except look distressed or frightened.In the supporting cast, special note should be given to George Siegmann, striking in the historical role of Danton. Edward Connelly, as the King's Minister, makes a marvelous grotesque.It is interesting to note that Italian-born British author Rafael Sabatini (1875-1950) had been a novelist for many years before striking gold with "Scaramouche." Its popularity with the public, to say nothing of this acclaimed movie adaptation, pushed it permanently onto that small shelf of fiction (and films) - "A Tale of Two Cities," "The Scarlet Pimpernel" & ORPHANS OF THE STORM - forever associated with the French Revolution. Sabatini also wrote the swashbuckler adventure novels "The Sea Hawk" & "Captain Blood."