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A man is employed to tutor the children of an aristocratic family and has an affair with the daughter of the house.

Ricardo Cortez and Frances Howard in The Swan (1925)

Easily the best version of the Molnar play

Well-filmed but slow silent version of Molnar&#39;s THE SWAN is hampered by far too many title cards.  Frances Howard, soon to be Mrs. Sam Goldwyn, makes a lovely Princess, Ricardo Cortez makes an excellent tutor and Adolphe Menjou makes, as always, a funny and aristocratic Prince, but it takes twenty minutes until the situation is set up and then everything is resolved by title card.  Stick with the charming 1950s version with Grace Kelly, Louis Jourdain and Alec Guinness.

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The Swan

This palace intrigue comedy shows a lighter touch than Buchowetski&#39;s German Emil Jannings films and once he hits his stride Menjou is able to carry the central playboy prince role with some style - which gives him the edge on a glum Ricardo Cortez in a felt hat. The film lacks the scale of comparable productions like Stroheim&#39;s THE MERRY WIDOW or Rex Ingram&#39;s PRISONER OF ZENDA. There isn&#39;t a decent wide shot in the Blue Danube ball room scene and drilled ranks of uniformed extras are missing but it does have (surprise) a Michael Curtiz style saber duel ten years before Curtiz got around to his. A couple of the character people register - Ida Waterman and Michael Vavich (WOLF SONG) and Mrs. Goldwyn is a plausible Swan princess. Adequate mainly studio filming.

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Adolphe Menjou (the prince), Frances Howard (the swan), Ricardo Cortez (the tutor), Michael Vavitch (adjutant), Helen Lee Worthing (Wanda), Nicholas Soussanin (aide), Ida Waterman (Beatrice), Helen Lindroth (Amphirosa), Michael Visaroff (Father Hyacinth). Writer/director/producer: DIMITRI BUCHOWETSKI from the 1921 play by Ferenc Molnar. Photography: Alvin Wyckoff. Copyright 17 February 1925 by Famous Players—Lasky. New York opening at the Mark Strand: 1 March 1926. 5,889 feet. 6 reels. SYNOPSIS: Somewhat different from the stage play and the Grace Kelly version with which we are all familiar, this is a far more robust offering in which the Swan has actually little to do or say. The action centers on the prince and his adjutant, and to a somewhat lesser extent on the tutor, and also the opportunistic lady-in- waiting. COMMENT: Easily the best version of the Molnar play, this one makes the prince thoroughly unsympathetic (but as enacted by the brilliant Menjou, he is still acutely fascinating) and the Swan herself (somewhat icily but captivatingly delineated by Frances Howard – soon to become Mrs. Sam Goldwyn) little more than a postscript. As the colorless hero, Ricardo Cortez, makes a splendid effort to engage the audience&#39;s sympathy, even though he is easily out-classed by Michael Vavitch. It&#39;s clear that the director is giving all his attention to actors Menjou, Vavitch and Worthing and using them as a splendid excuse to fill the screen with magnificent sets and set-pieces. The climax must rank has one of the most brilliant (as well as one of the most surprising) ever staged at Paramount. (Unknown Video has a nice 8/10 tinted print). Adolphe Menjou has an uncredited but easily recognizable role in another nice, tinted 9/10 Unknown Video DVD, &quot;What Happened to Rosa&quot; (1921), in which that delightful comedienne, Mabel Normand, plays the amusing, title role. In fact, she virtually carries the movie on her lonesome. Hugh Thompson is the handsome but dull doctor from whom Menjou easily steals scenes; Tully Marshall is wasted in a small part as a floorwalker; Doris Pawn makes some impression as Rosa&#39;s friend. Victor Schertzinger directed with competent ease. An extra on this Unknown Video DVD is Keystone&#39;s &quot;Hide and Seek&quot; (1913) which like many of these early quickies is filled with familiar faces frantically trying to work up enthusiasm for a rather tired and obvious plot.

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User reviews

The Swan

Mute Swan Makes Talky Silent

Silent Costumer from a Molnar original.

Easily the best version of the Molnar play

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