The Black Tulip (1964)

Good start, but then it gets ruined

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

this is the famous novel by Dumas la tulipe noir, not Zorro or whatever I have read in other reviews. I can recall many names in this film, extremely popular in our cinema, television and theater, like Adolfo Marsillach, as the Police Chief la Mouche, Alvaro de luna, before being a most celebrated bandit in Spanish television, José Luis Pellicena, glory of Spanish theater thorough decades, and many others. Very pretty actresses, you can't beat a famous Miss Italy, Virna Lisi, and on top of that, the most handsome and charming of all, Alain Delon, 28 year old by then, at the peak of his career to make this film version of revolution, adventure, romance, comedy and all the ingredients of the great Alexandre Dumas novel.

In this first ¨Tulipe Noire¨ starred by Alain Delon took a chance and jumped from Film Noir , action genre to costumed comedy-adventures ; he steals the show as a masked hero relishing his secret identity on his horse called Voltaire and in cape and wielding sword ; executing bounds and leaps , twists and climbs and throughly enjoys himself . In 1789, at the beginning of French Revolution , an outlaw named "Black Tulip" held the surroundings of a town called Roussillon in fear . The inimitable Alain Delon in a double role as Julien De Saint Preux/Guillaume De Saint Preux, as he dons a black outfit and becomes the Black Tulip , the legendary masked , hero of oppressed who declares himself a revolutioner . Black Tulip riding in the hoof-prints, enjoys his hidden activity in black cape and wielding blade and helps the good people who are mistreated ,thwarting the ambitious plans of the meanie official , as the poor people respect him like a new Robin Hood . When he contends Baron Mouche (Adolfo Marsillach) , he was wounded , but then appears his twin brother . Meanwhile , he falls in love with gorgeous Caroline (Virna Lisi) . He battles against Marquis of Vigogne (Akim Tamiroff) , baron La Mouche and Prince of Grasillach (Robert Manuel) . Black Tulip's helped by a servant named Brignon (Jose Jaspe) and unites forces to Plantin (Francis Blanche), his beautiful daughter and revolutionaries .Derring-do , feats, adventures, humor and action find this agreeable swashbuckler . Alain Delon runs and jumps, bounds and leaps all over the images and Adolfo Marsillach overacting outrageously when plays the villain Baron . Black Tulip-Delon splendidly fights evildoers and greed oppressors , while saving his brother an the damsel in distress . Delon made the character of Zorro his own and quickly established himself as a French legend ; starring years later , a similar film titled ¨Zorro¨ by Duccio Tessari . Delon is terrific as the Black Tulip , well accompanied by ideal heroine , a pretty Virna Lisi . Nice cast keeps the picture moving at a rapid clip , special mention for Adolfo Marsillach as a grumpy and bungler baron in a sensationalistic and exaggerated performance . Being a French-Spanish co-production appears several secondary actors seen in usual genres of the 60s as Jose Jaspe , Alvaro De Luna, Jorge Rigaud , Enrique Avila , Perla Cristal and Laura Valenzuela , wife of film producer , Jose Luis Dibildos . The film is set during French Revolution , though was filmed in Spain, Sevilla Films, Madrid, (studio) and Trujillo, Cáceres, Extremadura ; displaying a colorful cinematography by Henry Decae . Lively and jolly musical score with rousing leitmotif by Gerard Calvi .The motion picture was well-mounted and fast paced by Christian Jacque, an expert on adventures and historic genre as proved in ¨Fanfan¨, ¨Lady Hamilton¨ , ¨Madame Sans Gene¨ , ¨Madame Du Barry¨ , ¨Lucrece Borgia¨, among others . Ratinh : 6,5 . Worthwhile watching .

A lesser-known literary creation of Alexandre Dumas Snr. was this Zorro-type masked avenger at the time of the French Revolution who, unlike the contemporaneous The Scarlet Pimpernel, was on the side of the Revolutionaries despite being truly an aristocrat himself! I've never read the source novel myself but, in any case, I'm familiar with the character via a fondly-remembered Japanese animated series that I used to watch on Italian TV as a kid (where the titular hero was actually a girl!). Having said that, it seems that much of the narrative has also been changed for this handsomely-mounted, energetic but disappointingly bland cinematic adaptation.Alain Delon – who, ironically, would go on to portray Zorro himself in an equally medium-grade Italian production in 1975 – plays a dual role here as the jaded aristocrat who dons the black costume and as his naïve, younger brother who is forced to keep up the ruse when the latter is facially scarred during a swordfight with his nemesis (Adolfo Marsillach). No self-respecting swashbuckling hero goes by without a gushing female pining for him and, appropriately enough, we get two here in Virna Lisi and Dawn Addams – one for each Delon persona! The fomer ditches her own imminent marriage when she meets cute with the shier Delon and the latter gets it on with the older Delon practically in front of her ageing aristocrat husband, Akim Tamiroff.

I would advise you to try this, despite the respect I have for another's reviewer opinion. I don't know if my viewing of an original, French spoken version on the big screen may have lost in incredibly funny innuendo, great colours, beautiful cinematography - if they are reduced to a poor VHS copy, possibly carelessly dubbed into a foreign language.At least the acting by Alain Delon, and his equal, Virna Lisi, are still outstanding, as the continuous, imaginative action scenes. The two principals prove to be fine swords, against each other, and a number of enemies, and police rascals.The Black Tulip is a Zorro type avenger, but a character more rich than its American counterpart. Without giving the plot away, I may add that American viewers will be both thrilled, and surprised, how a French action films' director is able to mix comedy, and drama so well.Besides getting one of the film's DVD editions, people should be aware that a copy of the French version exists (possibly uncut) at the Alliance Française Médiathèque, a French cultural institution, and that they allow people to see the film there, and even borrow it! Ask for conditions at [email protected] and ask for their film PAL #161... Ah, next time I'll go to France!...