Reign of Terror (1949)

To me, this movie is perfection.

A Masterpiece!

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

I'd love to be able to give this film a higher rating, because I'm sure it's excellent. Unfortunately, the disc I have of this is a very poor print, and the dialogue was so fuzzy I missed a lot of it."Reign of Terror" is a 1949 film directed by Anthony Mann and stars Robert Cummings and Arlene Dahl.The time is May 1794. Robespierre (Richard Basehart) wants to become dictator of France. Supposedly he has a black book containing the names of his enemies, all of which he plans on destroying. The book is missing. He brings in a man named Duval to help find it. Duval, however, has been replaced by Charles D'Aubigny, a patriot who wants to bring down Robespierre.This filmed moved quickly, and Cummings and Dahl certainly made an attractive couple. She was one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood - you can even see that through a lousy print. Cummings would go on to huge success in television; as a film star, he was a second stringer at best, always likable, but probably better suited to comedy. However, under Mann's direction, he does a good job.Basehart is wonderful as Robespierre, and Arnold Moss, who looks like he could have been Adrien Brody's father, is an effective Fouche, who became later the head of Napoleon's secret police.France continued to have a tough time after the monarchy was brought down. Robespierre was a complicated person with high ideals, but he used terrorism to achieve them.

It's funny to watch how Hollywood treats French history .Historically this terror evocation leaves a lot to be desired .Nothing for instance concerns the reason why the terror was instituted:at the time the country had to fight two enemies :the foreign countries and the royalists .At the beginning ,the terror was "useful" ,although they killed a lot of innocents (including the genius Lavoisier who virtually invented chemistry ,the poet Chénier and the suffragette Olympe de Gouges ,one of the first women to claim sexual equality).In the movie,Barras ,who played a prominent part in the fall of RObespierre has a minor part ,except in the final scenes .Instead we have a chivalrous noble (Robert Cummings) and his gorgeous mistress Madelon (Arlene Dahl).For good measure they hint at the unfortunate late Marie-Antoinette and Bonaparte appears in the flesh towards the end ,as the messiah (?).PLus "La Carmagnole" "AH CA Ira! and ,all the same ,"La Marseillaise " (earlier "Le Chant Des Marseillais" ) which was at the time a revolutionary song.They seem to promise a brighter future if we are to believe the screenwriters Take it for what it is :pure entertainment and forget French history!

The Black Book (AKA: Reign of Terror) is directed by Anthony Mann and written by Aeneas MacKenzie and Phillip Yordan. It stars Robert Cummings, Richard Basehart, Richard Hart, Arlene Dahl, Charles McGraw and Arnold Moss. Sol Kaplan scores the music and John Alton is the cinematographer.Late 18th century France and the republic is in chaos as the French Revolution continues to rage. Scheming bad boy Maximillian Robespierre (Basehart) spies an opportunity for a dictatorship, within 48 hours he will seize control and rule France with a rod of iron. But there is hope in the form of a resistance freedom fighter named Charles D'Aubigny (Cummings), if only he can locate the secret Black Book belonging to Robespire then he can curtail the tyrant's plan.Before he would make his name in Adult Westerns and Period Epics, Anthony Mann made a considerable mark on film noir. From the mid 1940's to the beginning of the 50's, he made a number of film noir movies that marked him out as a considerable talent. Of that cluster the most odd one is The Black Book, an historical period thriller done out in film noir clobber. Forget history and approach the film as a piece of entertainment only, a film rich in film noir visuals and no small amount of quality drama. It has problems, namely it has a fakeness about it that's hard to shake off, while Cummings is weak and Dahl serves only to be a plot point in the final reel. But Alton and Mann's stunning sense of mood and visual atmospherics save the day, while there's value to be had in the performances of Basehart (dastardly), McGraw (menacing) and Moss (slimey). 7/10 Footnote: Sadly the only DVD available for the film is an appalling transfer, both in picture and sound. It's advised to watch it during daylight hours and with the headphones on.

The film is about a little black book that is in Citizen Robespierre's possession. This leader during the so-called "Reign of Terror" was a cold fish who consigned many--including his good friend, Danton, to the guillotine all in the name of patriotism. It seems in this movie that the Citizen actually has a master plan to wipe out everyone around him--it's hidden in this book and it is important to find the book and reveal to everyone the evil hit list. It's up to secret agent Bob Cummings to find it and convince everyone of the danger the nation faces.There have been some exceptional films about the French Reign of Terror (in the 1790s), such as THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL, A TALE OF TWO CITIES and DANTON. Because these films were so good, it made it much tougher to watch and enjoy REIGN OF TERROR. Sure, it was a good film, but compared to these great films it pales in comparison. Much of it is because there really isn't much in the way of character development and the actors could have just as likely been in a movie set in an entirely different time period. Overall, it's pretty much just a time-passer and an actor I usually love in films (Richard Basehart) is pretty bland as is the lead, Bob Cummings.