Drama

Romance

Désirée

20th Century Fox

United States of America

English

svenska

Marlon Brando

Jean Simmons

Merle Oberon

Michael Rennie

Cameron Mitchell

Elizabeth Sellars

Charlotte Austin

Cathleen Nesbitt

Evelyn Varden

Isobel Elsom

John Hoyt

Alan Napier

Leon Alton

Louis Borel

Richard Deacon

Edith Evanson

Bess Flowers

Carolyn Jones

Nicolas Koster

Dorothy Neumann

Gene Roth

Mary Stewart

Sven Hugo Borg

Peter Bourne

Paul Bradley

George Brand

Brad Brown

George Calliga

Harry Carter

Dick Cherney

Larry Crane

Paul Cristo

Jack Deery

Burnell Dietsch

Florence Dublin

Richard Garrick

Jack George

Leonard George

Rudy Germane

Sam Gilman

Ricky Gonzales

James Gonzalez

A. Cameron Grant

Ted Hook

Kenner G. Kemp

Colin Kenny

Marina Koshetz

Ann Kunde

Kay E. Kuter

David Leonard

Judy Lester

Ted Mapes

Jack Mather

Lester Matthews

William H. O'Brien

Siw Paulsson

Joe Ploski

José Portugal

Fred Rapport

Violet Rensing

John Roy

Cosmo Sardo

Bert Stevens

Arthur Tovey

Richard Van Cleemput

Daniel Taradash

Henry Koster

Annemarie Selinko

Bobby Greene

René Hubert

Milton Krasner

Alex North

_**Talky Napoleonic drama with Brando, Jean Simmons and Michael Rennie**_ 

From 1794-1815, the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte (Marlon Brando) is chronicled through the eyes of Désirée Clary (Jean Simmons), a young millinery clerk from Marseilles, who is initially infatuated with the future emperor of France, but winds up marrying one of his top generals, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte (Michael Rennie), who remarkably becomes Crown Prince of Sweden and potentially allied with the very forces that oppose Napoleon.   

Based on Annemarie Selinko’s hit 1951 novel, “Désirée” (1954) is a costume drama concentrating on the historical love triangle and behind-the-scenes politics. Don’t expect any flashes of action, like in Brando’s “The Young Lions” (1958).

While Marlon begrudged the role because he was settling legal issues for walking off the lead role in “The Egyptian” (1954) and thus phoned-in his performance, the movie interestingly made more at the box office than his other 1954 film, the heralded “On the Waterfront.” Phoned-in or not, Brando captured the essence of the brooding conquest-obsessed Napoleon and makes the flick worthwhile. But you have to be in the mood for dialogue-driven historical costume drama.

Whilst the script doesn’t elaborate on it, in real-life Bernadotte was named Crown Prince of Sweden for his benevolence toward Swedish POWs, captured by him when he was a Marshal of the French Empire.

Although curiously becoming King and Queen of Sweden & Norway, neither Jean nor Désirée ever learned to speak Swedish other than "kom," which means “come” in English.

The movie runs 1 hour, 50 minutes, and was shot in France and California.

GRADE: B/B-

Désirée (1954) ORIGINAL TRAILER [HD 1080p]

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Désirée

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Cast

Marlon Brando

Jean Simmons

Merle Oberon

Michael Rennie

Cameron Mitchell

Elizabeth Sellars

Charlotte Austin

Cathleen Nesbitt

Evelyn Varden

Isobel Elsom

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