The Black Tulip

A seductive fight film for the atmosphere, youth of lead actors, for humor and for absurd of few scenes. A sort of flavor of nostalgia remains the main gift of this lovely, easy film about brotherhood, legend, justice, French Revolution premises and love.

In 1789, in France, the outlaw The Black Tulip (Alain Delon) is a thief that steals the nobles for himself; however the poor people believes he is a revolutionary. He is indeed the womanized and dull Count Guillaume de Saint Preux, who has a love affair with the married Marquise Catherine de Vigogne (Dawn Addams). When the Chief of Police Baron La Mouche (Adolfo Marsillach) plans a scheme to arrest The Black Tulip, the bandit is marked by a scar on the face and La Mouche suspects Guillaume might be The Black Tulip. However Guillaume summons his clumsy and idealistic younger brother Julien de Saint Preux to pose as if were him to lure La Mouche. Meanwhile Julien meets the bride Caroline "Carol" Plantin (Virna Lisi), who is a revolutionary, and they fall in love with each other. When Julien learns that his brother does not have any principles or ideal, he assumes Guillaume identity and The Black Tulip to support Plantin (Francis Blanche) and his group in the revolution. Will they succeed?

"La tulipe noire", a.k.a. "The Black Tulip", is an entertaining adventure of a Zorro-like anti-hero. The plot is very funny until the point when Julien is arrested. Guillaume's sacrifice is silly and the conclusion is awful and messy, with Julien celebrating the revolution with Caroline and totally forgetting his brother and his body.My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "A Tulipa Negra" ("The Black Tulip")

In 1789 France, a thief known as La Tulipe Noir, regaled in black, including a black mask and cape, is going through France robbing noblemen. This sounds like Zorro or Robin Hood, except that the sentence ends "stealing from noblemen." Nothing about helping the poor. La Tulipe Noir, in reality Count Guillaume de Saint Preux (Alain Delon) is interested only in getting money and enjoying his clandestine affair with Marquise Catherine de Vigogne, who is a married to Marquis de Vigogne (Akim Tamiroff).

The French somehow believe in La Tulipe as a revolutionary hero. But no one knows who he is. The Chief of Police Baron La Mouche (Adolfo Marsillach) believes Guillaume is La Tulipe and runs a sword down the man's cheek during an event, figuring when he's making his robbery rounds, he'll be easy to recognize.

Now unable to rob anyone, Guillaume sends for his younger lookalike brother, Julien (Alain Delon) to lure La Mouche. Julien is guileless and idealistic, not to mention romantic, so when he meets Caroline Plantin, (Verna Lisi) a revolutionary, he falls for her.

Julien soon learns that Guillaume is not interested in being a revolutionary so he takes on his La Tulipe persona to support the revolutionaries.

This story is loosely based on a Dumas novel - real loosely, from what I understand. I found it delightful and very tongue-in-cheek. It's not as good as the Mark of Zorro of Tyrone Power, which had humor but also exciting drama, but it was still fun. Delon himself would play Zorro about ten years after this.

Delon plays both brothers beautifully, Guillaume more macho and tough, Julien sweet and innocent. His acting can be controversial because of his staggering, almost impossible good looks and a charisma that wipes everybody else off the screen. And let's face it, it's usually men who find fault with him. If you've seen "Two Men in Town," "Mr. Klein," "Notre Histoire," and many others, he's an excellent actor, the winner of two Cesars, the French equivalent of the Oscars.

Akim Tamiroff and Adolfo Marsillach are fantastic in their roles, bringing a good deal of humor to them.

This was a non-dubbed version with subtitles - you will certainly be let down if you see it dubbed. Very good film.

Just for cape and sword adventure fans, "The Black Tulip" is the French version of Zorro. Very much alike. There's Alain Delon in the main role for the ladies and he is not bad. You'll also find Virna Lisi in one of her early works rendering an acceptable work too. But if it comes to acting, veteran Akim Tamiroff is the clear winner in a supporting role as a villain noble. Photography and shooting on location in real palaces and old European cities add to the movie and a sort of sticky tune helps too.

But what "The Black Tulip" really lacks is the sense of passion and real heroism American classics of the genre usually transmit, this being really odd since most of them are usually located in Europe including France. I think the director didn't make up his mind whether this would be a serious swashbuckler with a touch of humor or a comedy with a touch of serious adventure. So it didn't work neither way.

Nonetheless the film is entertaining and worth a watch.

French version of the Zorro legend set during the period just prior to the French Revolution plays like Zorro the Gay Blade at times. Its an amusing romp with Alain Delon in the heroic lead (Delon would take up the mantle of Zorro a decade later and sleep walk his way through the role). Its the typical stuff with the "bandit" hailed as hero while the ruling class hates his guts. Filled with funny remarks and great action this is a film to search out, or would be if there were any decent copies floating around. The only way it seems to see this is on really bad low budget videotapes, which is a shame since its better than most swashbuckling romps that have appeared over the years.