Diane

DIANE is probably the least well-known of all LANA TURNER's "big" pictures at MGM--the studio which ironically was on the verge of bankruptcy at the time of this film, but you'd never know it from the opulence of the finished work in gorgeous Technicolor and featuring one of Miklos Rozsa's more subtle scores.

It's interesting for a couple of reasons: mainly, because it appears to be a faithful recreation of that period in costumes and settings, features ROGER MOORE (youthful and handsome before his James Bond adventures), and gives LANA TURNER and MARISA PAVAN some very interesting moments as they oppose each other in a number of well played scenes.

Other than that, it's a stilted costume romance that never quite comes to life despite all the efforts to give it handsome production values. That explains its obscurity among Lana's films. The lady herself is very fetching here, beautifully costumed (mostly in black), thanks to Walter Plunkett's designs, and attractively photographed for maximum glamor effect.

But part of the unreality comes from the excessive glamor given to Turner. Despite this flaw, she does turn in a good performance as Diane de Poitiers, courtesan who stirs envy in the king's wife and is the subject of much court intrigue in medieval France.

Neglected by today's viewers who probably have never had a chance to see it, it deserves a wider audience.

The Lion company - I mean Metro Goldwyn Mayer - was excellent in terms of costume, period, historical movies: the Richard Thorpe's IVANHOE, KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE, QUENTIN DURWARD and other films such as KING'S THIEF, DIANE, SCARAMOUCHE...This somptuous historical drama has the benefits of a terrific production design, the trademark of the MGM costume movies. David Miller made this only film of this kind, unlike Richard Thorpe for hom it was a speciality, though Thorpe was a very prolific director, more than David Miller. Lana Turner is so gorgeous that she nearly makes you ignore the rest, besides her beauty. Besides, I am French and I have alwways been amazed by the fact that Hollywood was so dedicated to make films concerning history of France !!! England, yes, but France !!!! And here, Roger Moore is not at all a super but an anti hero.

.....in the heart of France ,in Touraine ,there is Chenonceaux which was nicknamed "le Château des Dames" .It's there,among other places, that the long duel between Diane de Poitiers and Catherine de Medicis took place.If you visit it,and I urge you to do it if you were interested in this movie which is essentially fictionalized history,the guide will show you the monogram which was sculpted on the walls :Henri II the King was pretty smart on his part:the letters are officially H (Henri) and C (Catherine) but it can also be read H and D (Diane) .The interlaced letters can be read differently depending on who's concerned.

Marisa Pavan is a good choice as Catherine,and Lana Turner is good-looking .A pre-James Bond Roger Moore does a decent job -anyway Henri II's face is not that much familiar even to FRench people ,unlike François Premier,his father who also appears in the film:it's strange they chose a Mexican actor to play him! Historically ,the film leaves much to be desired but there are good ideas :the cage for instance:the scene in the forest is almost eerie and the final tournament -whose ending might or might not have been predicted- gains in intensity.

Lana Turner was elegant and beautiful as the French courtesan, wearing through most of the motion picture dramatic black costumes... She came to the court of King Francis I to plead for the life of her husband, Count Louis de Brézé who was falsely accused of plotting against the King...

Count de Brézé (Torin Thatcher) suspected his release by an act of infidelity...

Francis I (Pedro Armendariz) was the King who in his person and actions combined the romantic ideal of the medieval knight-king and the refined humanism and art of the Renaissance... When he required Diane's presence, the Count felt his suspicious confirmed... Obviously he was wrong!

However, the real reason Diane has been called is to teach the King's, Prince Henri (Roger Moore), the graces of court life in preparation for his marriage to Catherine de Médici (Marisa Pavan). Impressed by her beauty, charm and political sageness, as well as her ability to cope with his son, the King keeps her at court...

Prince Henri fell violently in love with her...

When the King is killed in battle, Diane became mistress of Henry, now King of France... Throughout his reign, Diane held court as Queen of France in all but name... The real Queen was forced to live in comparative obscurity... Catherine soon comes to hate the woman who is her husband's real love...

But Henri's reign was short, due to Gondi (Henri Daniell) treachery...

Directed by David Miller, the film carried faithfully the 16th Century environment with an impressive stag hunt, an exciting encounter with a wild boar and a thrilling climactic jousting tournament...

Sir Cedric Hardwicke played Ruggiere, the master of astrology, master of the art of predicting... He gave the Queen of France much to think over when she visited him, and in that tournament he murmured: 'What must be... Will be!'

If you like to see history in movies, plus intrigue, politics, secret plotting, suspicion, disloyalty... and you love colorful spectacle, and you want to see Lana Turner's good-acting with Marisa Pavan - in her possibly the best role of her film career as Henri's menacing yet pitiable wife - well, don't miss this entertaining motion picture!

A big costume drama of medieval France was Lana Turner's farewell to MGM with her leading man Roger Moore. One has to remember that this is based on a historical novel so the inaccuracies are to be expected.

The biggest inaccuracy was that young Prince Henry played here by Roger Moore was only 15 when he was introduced to Diane De Poitiers a married noblewoman to a man some 40 years her senior. Young Prince Henry may have needed some tutoring in the fine arts of court etiquette, but it was obvious Diane had some needs as well and Henry did fill them.

Roger Moore fine actor that he is, is not playing a 15 year old. Lana Turner plays the older Diane and she's fine in the role. Marisa Pavan is best in the film as Catherine DeMedici who marries Prince Henry and has a lot of kids among them three boys who become Kings of France, the last Valois kings as it happens. Pavan perfectly fits my conception of Catherine in her younger years. Pedro Armendariz is fine Francis I.

As is well known in 1559 King Henry II of France dies when he's accidentally struck with a lance in the eye. He lingered for a few days but his wound was mortal and he was in agony. The film and no doubt the book it was based on have a lot of intrigue and the idea being this was no accident.

You're not seeing history, you are watching a romance novel. But it was a decent farewell for Lana Turner. And if the story is ever remade today it would be something like Justin Bieber as Henry and Demi Moore as Diane.