THE BLACK ROSE 1950
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 1999 Timothy Voon
3 out of 4 for a controversial love affair
Back in the days before ‘Lolita', there was a movie called ‘The Black Rose' which carried a questionable G rating. The hero, Walter of Gurnie (Tyrone Power), is the illegitimate child of a Saxon Lord who is denied his inheritance and birthright. In an effort to find his fortune, he journeys to the middle-east and joins Kublai Khan's army which is about to invade China.
It is here that the film's controversy arises. ‘The Black Rose' Maryam, is a prepubescent teenager (at least 13 years of age, but played by an actress who was 18 but looks 13), daughter of a white man who is on her way as a gift to Kublai. She is rescued by Tyrone Power and Co. whilst trying to escape the life of a concubine in the harem of the Mongul King. Like most stories go, she falls in love with the hero and an interesting chauvinistic relationship follows. The man treats the girl like a servant and she seems to enjoy it – I wander whether this is reflective of the era?
The final scene is a passionate kiss between the thirty something Tyrone Powers and the 13 year old looking Cecile Aubry. No quite ‘Lolita', but comes a close second.
Timothy Voon
e-mail: stirling@netlink.com.au
Movie Archives http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Tim+Voon
Movies In Melbourne
http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~pfowler/week/movies.html
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews