The Pearls of the Crown (1937) User Reviews (12)

A very funny movie

[richard-1787 · 8/10 · 7 September 2010]

Sacha Guitry's movies probably don't show up in college courses on French film. But then again, neither, I suspect, do Marcel Pagnol's, which says a lot about such courses. This movie, Les perles de la couronne, is not a great movie, by a long shot. It is, however, an extremely funny one. It is a whirlwind tour of French history, and the characters going flying by, most without development or even much dialogue. Acting, except in a few magisterial cases (Raimu), is non-existent. What you do get is a brilliant narrative delivered by its brilliant author, Sacha Guitry. He is nothing to look at - though he was married to a succession of some of the most beautiful women in French theater and cinema - but he knows how to read his own words. Cynical to the extreme, but very funny.

Other than that, most of the women in this movie are remarkably beautiful to look at.

And you get to see Raimu in his heyday. What more could you ask, after you've worn out your copies of Marius, La femme du boulanger, La fille du puisetier, and the other masterpieces he made with Pagnol? This is basically an extremely funny history lesson, history as it should be taught but seldom is.

Definitely a movie for everyone, including and maybe even especially for those who have been fed a dull diet of "important" French cinema. The camera work may be nothing to write home about here, but the narration is a stitch.

The Marvellous Wandering Pearls

[MogwaiMovieReviews · 7/10 · 31 October 2018]

The best of Guitry's historical costumed romps, this one has a great deal of verve and mischief in its favor, all in the service of a shaggy dog story about a set of pearls destined to find their way onto the crown of England, and the hunting down of the three that didn't. The story takes in Henry VIII, Napoleon and Queen Victoria along the way and ends up a sort of comedic Maltese Falcon.

The constant use of English, Italian and French languages throughout is unusual and perhaps even unique. It does slow the pace down having the same line said 3 times throughout, but, like the rest of the film, it's all done in such a spirit of playful fun it somehow works.

Witty, funny overview of 300 years of history from talented Guitry, with a wonderful cast. Among his best comedies.

[Falkner1976 · 6/10 · 9 December 2022]

Funny and very witty comedy by Sacha Guitry. Like almost all of his works, it is very episodic, with characters who rarely appear for more than 5 minutes and who ingeniously plays with the relationship between the image and the everlasting voice-over.

In this case, the story of a seven-pearl necklace with an impressive history from the Renaissance to the present day is used by Guitry to show his ingenuity in the form of a history lesson, full of symmetries, repetitions and ingenious twists.

The cast, as always, is impressive, with the best of French cinema and theater from thirty years of French culture: Cecile Sorel, Coquelin, Raimu, Arletty, Barrault, Moreno....as well as the director himself and his own wife, the very elegant Jacqueline Delubac, like the married couple who decide to follow the trail of those historical pearls.

The film is an intelligent entertainment that does not tire despite its episodic character, thanks to the director's continued inventiveness. Some basic knowledge in history helps.

Cascading Pearls

[richardchatten · 7/10 · 25 March 2022]

Theatrical maestro Sacha Guitry goes through various wigs and false beards in this ornate romp through three languages and several centuries. Among the cameos by fellow theatrical luminaries Arletty wearing body makeup and very little else as the Queen of Abyssinia may offend modern 'Woke' sensibilities but she certainly keeps you awake!

Challenging but exquisite

[Sir-Final_Thoughts-No_Review · 7/10 · 16 January 2023]

In the end, The Pearls Of the Crown is about political gains and advantage, royalty and succession, love and heartbreak, and life and death; with the main story that connects all the dots being the origin of the seven pearls.

Basically four of the pearls rest on the English Crown, and a writer recounts to his wife how there were originally seven pearls, all of identical shape, color and weight, but 3 of them are considered missing and to understand the value and importance of these pearls a history lesson is in order. In the meantime, representatives from France and Italy are also interested in the missing pearls. By fate, the writer and these representatives manage to form a bond and make it a mission for each individual to locate a missing pearl. This is what happens in present time, but the true main story is the pearls.

Sasha Guitry and his team create a fascinating and original story that literally spans generations and involve a bevy of characters. In fact, the director who stars and many of the actors and actresses play multiple roles. The main story of the pearls is truly epic and keeps things interesting. The main fault to me is being able to keep up with that main story. Its challenging, things fast forward in the story at a lightning quick pace and characters come and go in the blink of an eye, and events and circumstance mixed in can leave you in the dust if you suddenly lost attention. It was also purposely made to appeal to both audiences who speak English, French and Italian as it shifts frequently back and forth and sometimes all at the same moment in each language.

So I would say watch it for the story alone, its unique and ambitious. Its not for all tastes for sure but its a nicely made and well acted movie.

A pearl on Guitry's crown

[dbdumonteil · 9/10 · 27 February 2007]

Do you know who the granddaddy of the Monty Python was?Sacha Guitry is a serious contender."Les Perles de la couronne" was his biggest commercial success and it's still much fun to watch it today.

It was the first of the "historical" movies of the artist: "Si Paris m'était Conté " "Si Versailles m'était Conté " "En Remontant les Champs-Elysées " were to follow.

Guitry was French wit at its best .Only Henri Jeanson could write as good as he could .His is not a vitriolic style like his peer Jeanson,but a sense of humor completely mad which verges on absurd.

Tell me who could put in a two-hour movie FRancois Premier and Henry the Eighth,Mary Stuart and Catherine de Medicis,Henry the Fourth and the popes,Napoleon and JOsephine,Napoleon the Third and Eugenie de Montijo ,the queen of Abyssinia and Elizabeth the First, Madame du Barry and the Sans-Culottes ,a cuckold and a courtesan, three thieves ,one of them being good at maths and logic,Virgin Mary in the flesh (two divine interventions),and more and more and more....??? Madness is everywhere and critic George Sadoul who would dismiss Guitry as "filmed stage production maker" and "as a man contemplating his navel ,if he were here today,should see his objections swept away in a deluge of joyful film making ,which only the snobs will not hear and only the deaf and the blind will not acknowledge.

The extraordinary quality of the screenplay -which is very complicated ,Guitry really invented here the Film à Tiroirs- is one of simple happiness.You should see Ann Boleyn(sic) teach King François's son the indicative present of the verb "to have" (and the obsolete form "thou hast" )."I need an English teacher too,the king says ,would you be my mistress?".This is a film that should be watched in French with English subtitles to enjoy the word games the puns and the gags which show at every minute .

About King Henry the Eighth:"He protested ,he protested ,he protested so much that he became a Protestant!".

The film is marvelously constructed;Sheherazade could not do better even if she tried her best: Once there was a pope who wanted to get rid of his dear niece Catherine's gallant .He had two invaluable pearls so he asked the young man for five more pearls which he would find around the world: around the world in eighty days or more.The Queen of Abyssinia sequence alone is worth the price of admission.Arletty ,with soot or paint smeared all over her face ,can only speak Abyssinian! So it takes three interprets (English,Italian,French ) to translate the sovereign's mumbo jumbo! When the lad came back,the seven pearls were given as a wedding present to Catherine de Medicis.Four pearls ,through the years ,were preserved,but three of them were stolen.Guitry goes backwards and forwards between the present and the past,with absolute virtuosity.And he even manages to make a "poetic" ending : the last pearl gets back to where it once belonged in a way...

Vive Sacha Guitry!

A genuine pearl

[tentender · 10/10 · 11 November 2009]

With only two comments on IMDb (and only one external review) I feel duty bound to chime in with a third to say that this is one of the perpetually delightful gems of cinema. A unique film: playful, fascinating, extravagant, hilarious, touching. Guitry is written off time and again as a mere purveyor of filmed theater, and it's true that he made many films -- about half of his output -- from stage plays, often long after their original stage productions. But once he got the cinema bug (he resisted for a very long time, only starting make films in middle age) he found that he was given a wonderful new toy, and continued to play with it for the rest of his days. The enormous cast, the huge number of extravagant sets, the lavish costumes, and the vivacious imagination with which all these are employed make of this charming film something to be treasured. I've seen it now four times -- I try to save it for moments when I really want something wonderful to savor. And let me not forget the beautiful and equally lavish musical score of Jean Francaix. The DVD is quite good, but you will of course have to have a region-free player -- and if you don't, why not? Available at this time only as one of the eight discs in a magnificent box set (with many extras) from Gaumont France, "Sacha Guitry: L'age d'or 1936-1938." It's well worth the price.

Stick with it.. it gets better

[rayincumbria · 5/10 · 16 July 2013]

I was really looking forward to this, my third Guitry.. I'd liked the other two, and I'm a bit of a history buff.. so it should be a winner...

I almost gave up in the first hour.. I found it very dry and dull... but all of a sudden, once the three were dispatched on their quest, it improved dramatically. There was sparkle, wit and interest that seemed to be missing from the first half (Which felt like a slow plod through history)

Perhaps I just happened to tune in..

So my apologies for the poor '5' score.

Delightful

[molefsky · 9/10 · 10 February 2003]

This unusual tri-lingual (French, English, Italien) film traces the history of seven pearls acquired at the behest of Pope Clement who gave them to Catherine d'Medici. The pearls are passed down to Mary, Queen of Scots. At the time of Mary's execution the pearls are stolen and separated. Four of them become part of the crown of England. The characters then try to discover what happened to the other three pearls.

It is a delightful film with clever, amusing dialogue. At one point a character is instructed to only speak using adverbs. She does so in answering a string of questions. It is a marvelous scene. Anyone who gets a chance to see this film should do so.

It looks nice and it's a quality production....but it's dry as dust.

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 18 October 2011]

"The Pearls of the Crown" is a very frustrating movie to watch. It looks very nice--with lovely costumes, nice acting and some gorgeous sets. But, unfortunately, it comes across as a very bad history lesson--so jam-packed full of characters and events from the last five hundred years that it made my head reel--and I am a retired history teacher!

Sacha Guitry was quite the auteur here--co-writing, directing and starring (in several roles) in this film. He was a talented man and did some lovely films. This, unfortunately, is not a particularly good one. The film is the history of a set of perfectly matched very large pear-shaped pearls. These pearls pass through LOTS of hands and the film is sure to show each and every one in a long, long series of vignettes. The first one is very long and well done--the other 3722348 are all too brief and hit you like an out of control freight train! All this is strung together with a plot of a man (Guitry) and two others who are in search of these illusive pearls. Even more episodic than "The Story of Mankind"--this one NEVER engaged me and only got worse as the film progressed. A clear misfire.

By the way, get a load of the Abyssinian queen--she's some white lady covered in copious amounts of dark paint.

Exceptional

[zetes · 9/10 · 20 November 2011]

A delight! This is kind of the film I was hoping to see last year when I watched Guitry's Story of a Cheat, which I had heard about for years prior to its becoming available. I liked that film quite a bit, but there was a tinge of disappointment in that it didn't live up to my expectations. The Pearls of the Crown, though, was just brilliant. Guitry and his wife Jacqueline Delubac play multiple roles throughout a 400 year timespan. In the present they play a historian and his wife. Guitry is telling Delubac the story of the pearls in the crown of England. These pearls came from Mary Queen of Scots' necklace, which in turn came from a wedding gift to Catherine de Medici from the Pope. Guitry tells the story of the pearls' origin, and also of their theft the night Mary Stuart was executed. The four pearls that were recovered from the thieves went into the crown, and the three others were never found. Soon Guitry teams up with British and Italian counterparts and the three of them set out on a mission to find the remaining three pearls. This film moves back and forth through time with the grace of a ballerina. Arletty appears in one of the more outrageous bits of the film, as an Abyssinian queen (and, yes, she plays it in blackface).

Unexceptional

[atari-3 · 5/10 · 8 August 2013]

Unexceptional telling of the history behind the pearls on the crown of England. Most of the film is narrated from the present day in flashback, as three heads of state, form England, France and Italy, manipulate family marriages, have numerous affairs and resort to murder to advance their own selfish desires. The pearls frequently exchange hands during all of this, eventually some end up on the crown but three are stolen. Back in the present day, three men are determined to track down those three pearls, leading to more flashbacks. Characters come and go at a lightning pace throughout, we hardly get to know one of them before another group is introduced. As a result, it's hard to care about any of them. Only the present day characters have any kind of continuity, and they are a wealthy, shallow group, obsessed with finding the pearls for no reason other than to make a movie about it.