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Shadow of the Guillotine

Original title: Marie-Antoinette reine de France
  • 19561956
  • 2h
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
154
YOUR RATING
Shadow of the Guillotine (1956)
DramaHistory
While Louis XV is dying, the Dauphine of France, Marie-Antoinette, seduces a Swedish officer, Axel de Fersen, which pains her husband, the new King Louis XVI, who will know how to be generou... Read allWhile Louis XV is dying, the Dauphine of France, Marie-Antoinette, seduces a Swedish officer, Axel de Fersen, which pains her husband, the new King Louis XVI, who will know how to be generous when he learns of this deception.While Louis XV is dying, the Dauphine of France, Marie-Antoinette, seduces a Swedish officer, Axel de Fersen, which pains her husband, the new King Louis XVI, who will know how to be generous when he learns of this deception.
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
154
YOUR RATING
    • Jean Delannoy
    • Jean Delannoy
    • Philippe Erlanger
    • Bernard Zimmer(dialogue)
  • Stars
    • Michèle Morgan
    • Richard Todd
    • Jacques Morel
    • Jean Delannoy
    • Jean Delannoy
    • Philippe Erlanger
    • Bernard Zimmer(dialogue)
  • Stars
    • Michèle Morgan
    • Richard Todd
    • Jacques Morel
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 3User reviews
    • 1Critic review
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards

    Photos16

    Michèle Morgan in Shadow of the Guillotine (1956)
    Michèle Morgan and Richard Todd in Shadow of the Guillotine (1956)
    Michèle Morgan and Jacques Morel in Shadow of the Guillotine (1956)
    Michèle Morgan and Richard Todd in Shadow of the Guillotine (1956)
    Michèle Morgan in Shadow of the Guillotine (1956)
    Michèle Morgan and Guy Tréjan in Shadow of the Guillotine (1956)
    Michèle Morgan in Shadow of the Guillotine (1956)
    Richard Todd in Shadow of the Guillotine (1956)
    Michèle Morgan and Richard Todd in Shadow of the Guillotine (1956)
    Michèle Morgan and Jacques Morel in Shadow of the Guillotine (1956)
    Michèle Morgan and Richard Todd in Shadow of the Guillotine (1956)
    Michèle Morgan and Marina Berti in Shadow of the Guillotine (1956)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Michèle Morgan
    Michèle Morgan
    • Marie Antoinette
    Richard Todd
    Richard Todd
    • Comte Axel von Fersen
    Jacques Morel
    • Louis XVI
    Jeanne Boitel
    • Mme. Campan
    Aimé Clariond
    Aimé Clariond
    • Louis XV
    Madeleine Rousset
    • Mme de Tourzel
    Guy Tréjan
    Guy Tréjan
    • Lafayette
    Georgette Anys
    Georgette Anys
    • Une émeutière
    Marcelle Arnold
    Marcelle Arnold
    • Mme. Adélaïde
    Edmond Beauchamp
    • Comte de Luxembourg
    Jacques Bergerac
    Jacques Bergerac
    • Comte de Provence
    Marina Berti
    Marina Berti
    • Comtesse de Polignac
    Paul Bonifas
    Paul Bonifas
    • Herman
    Yves Brainville
    • Danton
    Anne Carrère
    • Mme Du Barry
    Suzy Carrier
    • Mme Elisabeth
    André Chanu
    • Le Prêtre assermenté
    Daniel Ceccaldi
    Daniel Ceccaldi
    • Drouet
      • Jean Delannoy
      • Jean Delannoy
      • Philippe Erlanger
      • Bernard Zimmer(dialogue) (screenplay)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      Final film of Madeleine Rousset.
    • Connections
      Featured in Les dossiers de l'écran: Fallait-il l'envoyer à l'échafaud? (1989)

    User reviews3

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    Marie-Antoinette and Axel Fersen....
    When I watched the movie again the other day,it was followed by a debate where two historians and a writer Simone Bertière said that ,in spite of some inaccuracies,they did like the movie.Mrs Bertière wrote an absorbing biography of the unfortunate queen :although it's very long (800+ pages in paperback),I recommend it to all people interested in my country's last (and most famous) real queen (the two queens of the 1815-1848 Restoration do not count)I wish it could be translated into English .

    Jean Delannoy,the bete noire of the Nouvelle Vague ,did an OK job.The historians noticed how the scenes of the trial resembled old engravings.Michele Morgan is well cast as the aging queen ,but in the first scenes she's inevitably too old -in her thirties when the queen was 15!-The same goes for Jacques Morel's Louis XVI:not only he was too short for a king who was 1.90 meters high -,but he is too caricatured.

    Best scenes : the first ones,including the saucy sequence where Louis the Fifteenth tells his grandson what he 'll have to do...in bed in thinly veiled terms;His death and the noise of a hundred feet walking to the room where the new sovereigns are waiting;the trial and the guillotine scene ; the presence of a non-juring priest(a Michel Piccoli cameo) under the scaffold and the altar with blood stains are good ideas even if it's dubious from a historical point of view.

    But objections to Delannoy's film remain.It should have been called "Marie-Antoinette and Fersen" cause the handsome Swede (played by earnest thespian Richard Todd ) plays a too prominent part.He's present when the populace screams in Versailles "The queen on the balcony!" "Not the children" ;he helps them settle in the Louvre.All this is pure invention,probably coming from the romantic mind of the scenarists And during the long day of Varennes ,when he leaves the king and the queen en route to Brussels (historically inaccurate),he and Marie -Antoinette act as if the King is no longer here.On the other hand ,it's true that Fersen was the brains behind the mad escape.

    Too many important events are omitted :the storming of the Tuileries is absent,which is a problem since it was the fall of the monarchy and the birth of the first republic.

    A good thing:the dialog is full of historical sentences ,not only during the trial,but during the whole movie.That said,the movie about this queen is yet to make:Maybe Sofia Coppola..Maybe...there's always hope,they say...
    helpful•7
    3
    • dbdumonteil
    • Jan 28, 2006

    Details

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    • Release date
      • April 27, 1956 (France)
      • France
      • Italy
      • French
    • Also known as
    • Filming locations
      • Versailles, France
    • Production companies
      • Franco London Films
      • Les Films Gibé
      • Rizzoli Film
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • 2 hours

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