The Black Rose

Customer Reviews:

One Of My Favorites.......2007-07-14

I love this old-fashioned Historical Romance/Adventure about an exiled Saxon nobleman determined to make his way in the world, Marco Polo style. Tyrone Power is in his prime as Walter of Gurnie, and Orson Welles is completely convincing as Gayan, a clever, ruthless general for Genghis Khan. The romance in this movie is never cloying or unconvincing, and the sets are gorgeous, especially in the Forbidden City of the Empress of China. The movie manages to pack a lot of story into its 2-hour running time, but never seems rushed. I wish they still made them like this!

YOU TWO COULD MAKE ONE.......2007-06-22

Henry Hathaway's THE BLACK ROSE is based on the novel The Black Rose written by Thomas B. Costain. Walter of Gurnie, played by Tyrone Power, is 21 years old in the film while Tyrone was 36 but looked more, and Cecile Aubry, who was 22 years old in 1950, looked 14 as Maryam. It's no big deal but I still felt uncomfortable during the love scenes between the two characters. However, Orson Welles is brilliant as Bayan and steals the show each time he's on the screen.

I didn't read Costain's book but I can imagine that the author's main idea was to describe how the feeling to belong to a same nation could grow between people as different as Saxons and Normans. This antagonism is well symbolized by the character of Maryam who is clearly described as dual, remember how she must always disguise or apply heavy make-up over her body in order to look as an English girl. This duality is also present in the couple Walter of Gurnie/Tristram Griffin, the rational student and the poet with a bow.

The problem is that these ideas, that are certainly very interesting in a book, are not handled in a very cinematographic manner. I always had the feeling to read a book when I watched THE BLACK ROSE, with its chapters well marked: the scene in the castle, the scene in the family home, the scene in the desert, the scene in the Empress of China's palace and so on. THE BLACK ROSE is meant to be a swashbuckler but there is hardly a fight at the end of the film. With bows and arrows and without Tyrone Power. We see, in numerous occasions, thousands of extras walking in the desert but not a single battle against the Chinese army ! All these considerations explain why I don't consider THE BLACK ROSE as a major achievement in neither Henry Hathaway's nor Tyrone Power's careers.

A DVD zone Marco Polo and friends.

An Old Time Adventure Movie.......2007-06-01

This movie is an old favorite. It's about Norman/Saxon England, and a young rebel who with his friend Jack Hawkins and his trusty longbow, takes off for Cathay and adventure. He meets up with Orson Wells as a Mongol general and manages to survive and carry back to England various Chinese secrets (an English version of Marco Polo). The female star was poorly cast...but this is a movie that pushes through its problems with epic scenes of the Mongol army, and takes you back to old-time adventure stories, before the likes of Indiana Jones etc.

Regardless of problems with editing and the plot, this movie is an enjoyable ride on the backs of Tyrone Power, Jack Hawkins, and Orson Welles. This is not his best film, but so what. It is still a good Tyrone Power entertainment ride. An average Tyrone power movie is still a reality-morphing experience in my view. I am awaiting the DVD of the Bengal Lancers, another favorite.

Power Rendered Impotent.......2007-06-01

"The Black Rose" = stinkweed. Its unprepossessing plot is shot full of holes. The poorly drawn characters are generally unsympathetic. Consider the atrocious casting of the film's leading roles: mature, very American Tyrone Power as a young Oxford scholar; juvenile French actress Cecile Aubry--as the (unconvincing) romantic interest--is about as sexually devastating as a kewpie or cabbage-patch doll. The film's leaden pacing, its prolix and unremarkable dialogue, its profound lack of credibility as well as its failure to appeal to any other emotions than this viewer's boredom and contempt result in my judging "The Black Rose" as one of the worst films Tyrone Power ever had the ill fortune to make.

This otherwise undeserving DVD release does include a single interesting special feature: a Power Family Reunion featurette, in which Tyrone's son, two daughters, and second wife sit down and reminisce about him.

An earnest Tyrone Power, a succulently hammy Orson Welles and an adventure from Norman castles to Chinese palaces and back again.......2007-05-11

And what's a black rose? We're told it is the name given to the clove, the most precious of spices. In this case, the clove is Maryam, played by Cecile Aubry. She was a small French actress, discovered, it is said, by producer Darrell F. Zanuck, and who looks no older than 14. She has a small mouth which is filled with tiny teeth and a plump tongue, and she occasionally jumps about to express enthusiasm. If Vera-Ellen and Charlie McCarthy had ever had a child, it would look a lot like Cecile Aubry. The movie, The Black Rose, is no stinker, but it suffers from Aubry in the role. Unfortunately, it also suffers because Tyrone Power, playing Walter of Gurnie, a young scholar in his early twenties, looks every bit the 39-year-old man he was. The one insuperable drawback to the movie is its disjointed nature. We move from Norman England 200 years after William the Conqueror, to the middle-east and then on to a Mongol army moving and battling its way toward China, then to the imperial court of China itself, and finally back to England. We have a movie which is part historical adventure, part travelogue, part uneasy romance and, with Orson Welles playing the Mongol general Bayan with false eyelids, chubby cheeks and greasy skin, part succulent ham. The movie features some great scenic set-ups, interesting acting in one or two of the secondary parts, particularly by Jack Hawkins, and a nice look at a marching mongol horde, but on balance I think it is one of Power's weakest romantic-adventure films.

Walter of Gurnie, the illegitimate son of a Saxon lord who had married a Norman woman, is a hot-headed Oxford student who has left his studies when he heard his father has died. He hates, with good reason, the Normans. One night he joins a band of fellow Saxons led by Tristram Griffin (Jack Hawkins), an excellent bowman, in an attack on the castle which had been his father's. He planned to free some Saxon hostages held by his step-mother and her son, as well as to claim the boots his father had left in his father's will. In this will his father had publicly acknowledged him as his son. As a result of the attack, Walter and Tris must flee, and Walter decides they should go adventuring to Cathay to win gold, jewels and fame. Along the way he meets the great Mongol general, Bayan of the Hundred Eyes, who takes an interest in the two. Walter and Tris also are tricked into hiding a young woman, Maryam, who is one of dozens of maidens being sent to the Great Khan and who are traveling with Bayan's army. After battles and marches, archery contests, chess games and a walk along the rope of death, Walter is sent to the Chinese court to explain how powerful Bayan is and why the Chinese should surrender the imperial city. Now we have luxurious surroundings, manicured gardens, treacherous mandarins, jewels sewn into coats and a harrowing escape in which Walter and Maryam are separated. Finally, we're back in England, where the king honors Walter for his bravery and for bringing back the knowledge of the Chinese. All seems settled except for his lost love for Maryam. Will they be reunited? And how? See the movie.

Tyrone Power was Zanuck's champion swashbuckler. Power was, for me, a very earnest actor. In his early years he had great good looks. As he aged, his face thickened a bit, his eyebrows grew dense and his five-o-clock shadow must have been a real challenge for Fox's make-up artists. He was an actor who longed to show he could do more than prance around the scenery with a sword in his hand. In two movies, Nightmare Alley and Witness for the Prosecution, he fought for the chance to show he could handle unpleasant roles, and he did very well. Yet for the most part he stayed safely playing conventional star heroes. He died of a heart attack when he was only 44. He was filming, what else, a dueling scene for one more big, expensive and forgettable adventure movie.

For those who enjoy reading sweeping historical adventures, you might like the source book, The Black Rose by Thomas B. Costain. It's one of those big, fat novels that goes from adventure to adventure. Costain probably is barely remembered now. He was a Canadian journalist who, in his early sixties, unexpectedly struck it rich as a popular novelist. For ten years he wrote best selling fiction and well-respected popular histories. His fiction is packed with well-researched history and his histories read like well-written novels. The Black Rose is still a good read. The Black Rose

The DVD transfer does not have the crispness and rich color we've come to hope for. It looks like the DVD was made from a reasonably well-maintained source print which received no restoration work. One of the extras is a feature with Power's children and a former wife discussing him and his work. I only sampled it.

Black Society Trilogy (Shinjuku Triad Society/ Rainy Dog/ Ley Lines)

Average customer rating:

Black Society Trilogy (Shinjuku Triad Society/ Rainy Dog/ Ley Lines)
Starring: Ming-Jun Gao , Tomorowo Taguchi , Lianmei Chen , Sho Aikawa , and Jianqin He
Director: Takashi Miike
Manufacturer: ArtsmagicDVD
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

Action & Adventure | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

( B ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B000CCD23S
Release Date: 2006-01-31

Description

From the maniac mind of Japanese sensation, Takashi Miike, the director of â€~FULL METAL YAKUZAâ€™ and â€~YOUNG THUGSâ€™ comes his gangster opus, THE BLACK SOCIETY TRILOGY.

SHINJUKU TRIAD SOCIETY

In a twilight world, where gangster and law enforcer attract and repel each other in waves of violence, Tatsuhito, a dirty cop pursues the gay Chinese warlord, Wang, from the night world of Shinjuku to Taiwan.

RAINY DOG

An outcast yakuza Yuji, lives as a hitman on the fringes of the Taiwanese criminal world. But when heâ€™s unexpectedly saddled with what may be his real son, his lethal skills are deployed to win a haven for his new family.

LEY LINES

Description

The final film in Takashi Miike's `Black Society Trilogy' finds the darkness of racial bigotry in the heart of Japanese society and bureaucracy. Three boys of mixed race seek to escape from Japan, but their search brings them up against dangerous gang boss Wong, who holds the key to their departure. Once again, Miike astounds with this compelling and outrageous yet honest look at sex and violence at the fringes of society.

SPECIAL FEATURES
Interview With Director
Interview With Editor
Full Length Commentary By Tom Mes, Acclaimed Writer On Japanese Cinema
Sleeve Artwork
Trailer
Biographies & Filmographies
Scene Selection

RUNNING TIME 105 MINS APPROX
ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN PRESENTATION
NTSC
DVD-9
REGION 1
JAPANESE LANGUAGE
OPTIONAL ENGLISH SUBTITLES

Customer Reviews:

"I kinda want to eat ice cream.".......2005-06-14

Alright, I guess I'll take first crack at this. To be honest, I haven't viewed either "Shinjuku Triad Society" or "Rainy Dog" in about a year and a half. "Ley Lines" completes the Triad Society Trilogy, and I watched it last night. Very good movie.

"ley lines" - alignments of ancient landmarks, beacons, and holy places (churches, stone circles, cairns, etc.) stretching across the landscape at various intervals, believed to be remnants of prehistoric trade routes. Forming topographical "straight lines," Alfred Watkins - whom "re-discovered" ley lines in 1921 - went further to link them to the winged messenger Hermes: the Greek god of communication and boundaries, and the guide to travellers on unknown paths. Years later, their importance would be interpreted as lines of "cosmic energy" on Earth, and suspected to be a link to UFO sightings.

The "guide to travellers on unknown paths" aspect is what chiefly concerns the title.

Miike Takashi is very often labeled an exploitation director, and no true fan of his films could really argue this point. C'mon, you know it's not ALL about the art of the grotesque. However, the man breaks some legitmate bulk when he wants to. Cases in point are "The Happiness Of Katakuris" "Bird People In China" and (IMHO) "Dead Or Alive 2: Birds". Anyway. We all know all his films aren't flawless, in fact, I was rather unimpressed with "The Boys From Paradise". Furthermore, I grow more curious of his m.o. when he crosses genres, such as with "Ley Lines". A deft blend of street crime and unexpected drama.

Two brothers and their foreign friend are having a hard time finding a niche to fall into within Tokyo's drug (glue) racket. From the beginnning of the film, they seek escape from the island but are denied passport authorization because of probationary status. Whilst trying to secure safe passage away from a dangerous underworld boss with a severe deprived-childhood fixation, they cross paths with a whore from Shanghai when her upstairs cavorting brings dirt from the ceiling down into their food.

She robs the three guys, ditches them, but befriends and joins them after her brutish pimp (complete with Raasta hat) subjects her to a rather nasty customer. This motley crew thus manages to locate a Desert Eagle and pull rush-heists to secure the fee for off-shore passage to Brazil, but unfortunately steal from the wrong gangster: their former boss. Will they rendezvous with the fishing boat in time for swift leave to sunnier shores?

Without giving away the ending, that's pretty much the meat of the story. Simple, if you think about it. Just as the presentation of this film is simple, direct and for the most part stationary. "Ley Lines" is a great example of what Miike is capable of - with his trademark take-it-at-face-value handling of hurried sex; violent criminal bosses; and stark, unstable action sequences that genuinely surprise.

And when the film does slow down... it actually stops a couple of times, such as a meditative moment between boy and girl at an abandoned train station that takes on a lyrical poignancy which reflects the emotion of the errand the little brother took off on. It is during scenes and shots like these that you must remind yourself that Miike is a Japanese director, in addition to being an exploitation director. He is extremely capable of being lyrical, poignant, and meditative. And he's good at it.

Fortunately, for those of you who are more superficial in judging such things, the opening and ending scenes are the most cohesive and subtle examples of where "Ley Lines" has come and gone. In terms of story arc, they are strong bookends. But Miike will never be able to best "Visitor Q", which has the absolute *best* story he has presented thus far. (Don't look at me like that.)

One thing: it seemed the photography in the film was slightly too dark, but it may have been the VHS dub off a DVD that made that effect.

Engaging and - to my surprise - rather moving.

4.5 stars. Recommended.

P.S. Miike, take off your sunglasses, would you?

Average customer rating:

Ley Lines
Director: Patricia Gruben
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( L ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

DVD:

DVD

DVD