The Swan (1956) [NR] ***

Somewhere in Central Europe Princess Beatrix (Jessie Royce Landis) and her only daughter, Princess Alexandra (Grace Kelly), know their days of enjoying the royal life are numbered unless Alexandra captures the heart of her distant cousin Crown Prince Albert (Alec Guinness) who is about to pay a surprise four-day visit to their palace. When it becomes clear there is no romantic chemistry between Albert and Alexandra, Beatrix decides to create some by having Alexandra invite the family’s tutor, Professor Nicholas Agi (Louis Jourdan) to the ball being given in honor of Prince Albert. What nobody knows, however is that Nicholas is already in love with Alexandra. (Note the names – reminiscent of Nicholas II of Russia and his wife Alexandra.)

Alexandra is young enough and sheltered enough that she’s never seen the face of a man who’s in love with her, so understandably she falls in love with Nicholas. By this time, however, Beatrix’ little plot has been revealed to all, and the humiliated Nicholas has only one course of action - to leave the palace. Alexandra is prepared to give up her royal life and her chance to be queen, and leave with him. She has already packed her bags, but when she goes to Nicholas’ quarters and declares her love for him, he rejects her, leaving her no recourse but to accept Albert’s hand.

In the final scene, Albert reminds Alexandra that her father had called her his ‘swan’, meaning a lovely, white bird gracefully gliding across the water alone, far away from shore. But Albert also notes that if the swan should attempt to walk on land, her ungainly waddling would soon bring ridicule. So she must remain on the water, serene and alone.

This project was developed as MGM’s attempt to cash in on Grace Kelly’s impending royal marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco. In going deep into its catalog, the studio came up with this relic from the bygone silent era. It’s undeniable that this film was outdated in the mid-fifties. These kinds of movies were, for the most part, typical of 1930s and 1940s Hollywood, not an era in which Elvis Presley was swiveling his hips, and the space race had begun in earnest. At the very least, this movie would seem to have been more suited to the light-musical treatment rather than the uneasy mix of comedy and drama with which the audience is presented.

The movie starts promisingly with the accent on comedy for the first 45 minutes or so. Alec Guinness makes Prince Albert a highly likeable character initially, although his character becomes darker, and his motives questionable, as the film progresses. Unfortunately, both Grace Kelly’s and Louis Jourdan’s characters are only two-dimensional, like cardboard cutouts, and they quickly become boring as the more dramatic aspects of the plot take over and the film begins to drag. The non-Hollywood ending, in which the handsome boy does NOT get the beautiful girl, is refreshingly original albeit somewhat downbeat for the post-WWII era and the genre.

Labels: comedy, drama, romance

Internet Movie Database 6.5/10 

RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=NA, viewers=7.0) 

WikipediaThe Swan (film)