Sat 22 Aug 2015
Reviewed by Jonathan Lewis: THE SCARLET COAT (1955).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Suspense & espionage films[12] Comments
THE SCARLET COAT. MGM, 1955. Cornel Wilde, Michael Wilding, George Sanders, Anne Francis, Robert Douglas, John McIntire, Rhys Williams, John Dehner, Bobby Driscoll. Director: John Sturges.
The Scarlet Coat is at once a docudrama epic, a Revolutionary War era swashbuckler, and a war film. Directed by John Sturges, the movie stars Cornel Wilde as the fictional Major John Bolton of the Continental Army. His task: ferret out the traitor in the colonists’ midst, a trail that ultimately leads him to none other than the infamous historical traitor, Benedict Arnold (Robert Douglas). To accomplish this task, Bolton goes undercover as a deserter in British-controlled New York City where he aims to deceive Major John Andre (Michael Wilding) and the loyalist Dr. Jonathan Odell (George Sanders).
Filmed in Cinemascope in Eastman Color on location in New York’s Hudson River Valley, The Scarlet Coat benefits from a stellar cast, and lavish, detailed costumes. Yet, when all is said and done, it’s the alternatingly flaccid and meandering script that makes the movie an altogether humdrum affair.
That’s not to say that the movie doesn’t have its moments. Indeed, the film’s last thirty minutes or so have enough action and suspense to keep you engaged and anticipating what happens next.
But it’s simply not enough to make up for the fact that, for much of the movie, the actors seem to be going through the motions more than anything else. Likewise, the friendly rivalry between Bolton and Andre over the fictional Sally Cameron (Anne Francis) seems forced, as if the screenwriters decided upon introducing a romantic subplot just for the sake of having one in the movie.
And the character of Benedict Arnold, nominally the pivotal character, barely appears on screen, making the film more the story of British spy, John Andre than of the American spy, Arnold.
The Scarlet Coat, which was not a commercial success, is not a bad film so much a as a movie which reached for a level of historical relevancy that, despite gallant effort, ultimately eluded its grasp. That’s not to say that it’s not worth watching. In a way, it still is, so long as you do so with tempered expectations.
August 22nd, 2015 at 8:38 am
Movies about the Revolutionary War seem to be a hard sell, but that says more about the paucity of producers’ and writers’ imaginations (and sadly, I guess, popular tastes) than the richness of the historical material. Was it Mayer who said he didn’t want to make films where people write with feathers? And it doesn’t help if the product itself lacks energy. I haven’t seen THE SCARLET COAT, but Hugh Hudson’s REVOLUTION from several years ago, with Al Pacino miscast as a 1770s fur trapper, was a crashing bore. The only commercially successful (if dramatically dubious) RW movie I can recall from recent years was THE PATRIOT. Still, any film with Sanders and Douglas has at least that much going for it.
August 22nd, 2015 at 1:56 pm
Most period fiction be it films or TV have a hard time unless the period is within the lifetime of the audience.
AMC’s TURN features spying during the Revolutionary War has survived but basically ignored.
Can anyone think of a successful film or TV show that took place during the Revolutionary War that did not have John Adams in it?
August 22nd, 2015 at 4:47 pm
1776 did well as I recall and it is a delightful film and the one with Nick Nolte as Jefferson isn’t bad.
Howard Fast’s revolutionary war novel was a well done TVM with Tommy Lee Jones, Shaw’s THE DEVILS DISCIPLE is fun, Maxwell Anderson’s VALLEY FORGE with Richard Basehart as George Washington was well recieved as was the Jeff Daniels Washington miniseries, then there was also the Franklin mini series with the Bridges family and Disney’s JOHNNY TREMAIN and THE SWAMP FOX. Those are all that come to mind off hand.
August 22nd, 2015 at 5:51 pm
I have to confess that I have seen very few of any of those movies or TV shows. Maybe it’s because we covered the period over and over again every year in grade school, but I just don’t find the era very interesting.
Maybe it’s just that the right movie hasn’t been made yet that would appeal to me.
Michael, Comment #2. I’m sure I read not too long ago that TURN has been given the go-ahead for a third season. Somebody must be watching.
August 22nd, 2015 at 5:58 pm
I’ve been watching TURN Season 1 on DVD and find it quite compelling. The acting is quite good. Most of the cast I think is British. And it’s filmed on location in Virginia as a stand-in for Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey.
There’s another Revolutionary War era film I recently watched: THE HOWARDS OF VIRGINIA starring Cary Grant. Will have it posted soon so as to continue the discussion
August 22nd, 2015 at 7:38 pm
A critic once noted that Revolutionary War films do poor business here and almost none at all in England.
And it was George Marshall who said, “Don’t give me none of those movies where they write with feathers.”
August 22nd, 2015 at 10:28 pm
#3 David the only successful financially TV or Film I know of was 1776 (with John Adams) and at least two biographies of Adams one on HBO the other on PBS.
The movie THE PATRIOT barely made its cost back. I can’t even remember one additional successful production from the bicentennial year.
History Channel did a mini-series this year SONS OF LIBERTY that came and went without much fanfare from the public.
TURN is on AMC where ratings don’t matter as much as the buzz (MAD MEN did terrible in the actual ratings). WALKING DEAD keeps the network a must for cable providers whose carriage fees is how AMC makes most of its money. AMC does not have enough new programs to fill its prime time so it sticks with shows longer than it deserves.
August 23rd, 2015 at 12:29 am
VALLEY FORGE and the Tommy Lee Jones film were both Hallmark I think. JOHNNY TREMAIN did well though no hit in theatrical and was shown as part of the old Disney series. SWAMP FOX started on Disney then shared a slot with TEXAS JOHN SLAUGHTER and ELFEGO BACA doing well enough on the former to earn a shot on the latter.
The curse goes all the way back to Griffith’s film AMERICA and seems to have held true save for 1776 and the Adams mini series though the long running Fess Parker DANIEL BOONE series teased the Revolution or at least its beginnings.
Oddly swashbucklers set in France in the same century are still a film staple off and on from SCARAMOUCHE to DANGEROUS EXILE. For whatever reason it just doesn’t work for American films though Ford’s DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK is considered one of his best (not sure about its box office reception on release).
Something about Americans in powdered wigs and wearing stockings just doesn’t sit well.
That said, John Jakes THE BASTARD and its sequel THE REBEL did well as mini series with that background.
Again, it is pre Revolution, but John Wayne’s FIGHTING KENTUCKIAN with Oliver Hardy and George Sanders is a good film though I don’t know how it performed compared to other Wayne outings of that era.
I don’t think it did all that well but Abbot and Costello’s THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES is one of their best films and holds up today almost as well as MEET FRANKENSTEIN.
One excellent film of the immediate post Revolutionary era is TEN GENTLEMAN OF WEST POINT with George Montgomery and a fine Laird Cregar performance. Part two of King Vidor’s NORTHWEST PASSAGE which would have taken Major Robert Rogers into the Revolutionary period (as a traitor) was never filmed.
One problem may be as simple as the fact that most of the heroes of the Revolution whose names everyone knows are famous for talking or thinking or at best strategy. There aren’t a lot of swashbucklers in American history classes from that period, and the military heroes are mostly generals which is almost never good for action films. Still JOHN PAUL JONES with Robert Stack is a good film and I think did relatively well at the box office.
The War of 1812 did better with two de Mille outings of THE BUCAANEER, and DAVY CROCKETT for Disney at least in the Creek Indian wars and Rock Hudson and Anthony Quinn covered the Seminole war in SEMINOLE as did Raoul Walsh with Gary Cooper in DISANT DRUMS (actually a remake of Errol Flynn’s OBJECTIVE BURMA). The Barbary Pirates scored TRIPOLI with John Payne, Maureen O’Hara, and Vincent Price, but for the most part American history doesn’t seem to play well without Indians, and usually without cowboys or at least the Civil War though mountain men and explorers get some leeway. Even the Haitian Revolution did better with LYDIA BAILEY than the American one. There is even a film with Dick Powell as Napoleon’s brother selling us Louisiana.
TURN is indeed brilliant, and aided by the brilliant non fiction bestseller it is based on, but cable ratings compared to network ratings are tenuous things in terms of audience size even today.+
August 23rd, 2015 at 4:49 pm
Whew! That’s some list, David. Thanks very much!
August 24th, 2015 at 12:11 am
April Morning is the Jones film based on Howard Fast ‘ s novel about Concord.
August 24th, 2015 at 10:57 am
David, DISTANT DRUMS was a remake of OBJECTIVE BURMA. That’s funny because I always thought OBJECTIVE BURMA was a remake of NORTHWEST PASSAGE.
August 25th, 2015 at 6:35 pm
Basically you are right Ray, but none the less Drums is from the same director and based on the Flynn film where the Flynn film only manages to borrow from PASSAGE — liberally.