- Swashbuckler: Technicolor romp sees star-crossed lovers torn between love and duty
- Joan Fontaine returns for her second Du Maurier adaptation after starring as “I” in Rebecca
- Basil Rathbone pointedly plays a baddie again, with support from Sherlock Holmes co-star Nigel Bruce
- Various remakes keep the adventurous magic alive, while documentaries examine the life of the author
US Modern Screen ad (Screenland, alt) publicity, more
Contents
- Production
- Home video
- 1998 remake
- On the radio
- Solo readings
- Documentaires du Maurier
- Related articles
Production
Star-crossed lovers: Joan Fontaine and Arturo de Córdova
A Lady of Fire and Ice… A Rogue of Steel and Gallantry!
A Lady of Society. A Pirate of Infamy. The Romance of a Lifetime.
As a beautiful, learned Lady of means in 17th century London, Dona St. Columb (Joan Fontaine) had it all – wealth, nobility, children… and a loveless marriage. But after years of being royally subjected to mistreatment, she retreats with her most prized possessions – her two children – to a secluded manor overlooking Britain’s Atlantic shoreline. Once there, she’s enthralled with the tall tales of a scoundrel of a pirate, who has been plundering nearby coastal villages.
Full of adventure and fueled by years of neglect, she sets forth to seek him out, and it isn’t long before she finds him… to be quite an irresistible gentleman. She is soon swept into his arms, and out onto a high-seas adventure where she chances death to protect her children from a vengeful father, who is out to reclaim what he had never known, and to destroy something he had never shown – love. Earning Oscars for both Art Direction and Set Design, movie lovers will delight in this lavish example of golden age Hollywood escapism. – US Universal VHS and DVD-R
“Frenchman’s Creek brims over with flashing swordplay.” – John Lardner, The New Yorker
Frenchman’s Creek, a Film of Romantic Adventure – Bosley Crowther, The New York Times
Frenchman’s Creek is a 17th century romance about the lady and the pirate. beautifully Technicolored and lavishly mounted, which should fit into the present-day escapist idiom As such, it will do business. No smash, but the Joan Fontaine name for the marquee, the bally-hoopla attendant to building Arturo de Cordova into a male draw, the Daphne du Maurier (Rebecca) authorship, combined with the elaborate Mitchell Leisen production, should make for b.o. attention. Film reputedly cost over $3,000,000 to produce, Paramount’s costliest investment in history. It doesn’t quite look that expensive, but it’s understandable that much back-of- the-scene travail and delay could fast mount the costs.
The romantic pirate from France who invades the Cornish coast of England, hiding his frigate in what thus becomes known as Frenchman’s Creek, plays his role with all the musical comedy bravado the part calls for. In truth, if the public accepts the cinematurgy in that frivolous, musicomedy manner. the picture is a cinch to become a winner. The romance is supposedly forthright and played straight. Miss Fontaine seeks refuge in the Cornish castle to get away from a stupid husband (Ralph Forbes) and a ducal menace. The scoundrelly servant at the Cornish retreat is actually the pirate chief’s hireling, and the romance between the two, including a de-Haysized idyll on his piratical schooner over-night, is but one of a sequence of similar adventures.
All the trappings of the period are interlarded in this tale of hijacking an English pirate’s vessel, loaded with booty from the Indies; bearding the irate English gentry in their lair; duelling against odds; the inevitable arrest and escape to the high seas, leaving Miss Fontaine and de Cordova mooning at each other through the sails and halliards. It is a romantic picture of love torn asunder by the conventions. In this case, said conventions are her two children. The performances are sometimes unconsciously tongue-in-cheek, but withal come off well. Cecil Kellaway is particularly good as the servant.
Miss Fontaine is beauteously titian and desirable as the romantically torn wife, and de Cordova gets his role off well albeit not altogether convincingly. He has yet to prove himself truly socko as a male pash. Nigel Bruce, Basil Rathbone and Forbes are otherwise satisfactory, especially Bruce. Rathbone is too leeringly the lecherous menace, and Forbes too much the dolt. The scripting at times borders on the ludicrous, especially when almost all the sympathetic figures wax near hysteria in their scoffing at the dangers which may beset them. Productionally it is ultra. And no minor assist is that excellent Victor Young score. – Abel., Variety
Basil Rathbone is the lascivious Lord Rockingham but somehow methinks this peacock’s plumage is false
Home video
Four years after starring in Rebecca for Alfred Hitchcock, Fontaine went on to very reluctantly feature in another romantic du Maurier adaptation, based on her eponymous 1941 novel (French, alt title) but this time shot in vivid colour rather than the previous film’s austere black and white tones. Following her star turn in Suspicion, this was almost her third for the director as he had put in a bid for film rights to the novel but it was “nixed as too low.” Co-starring Mexican actor Arturo de Córdova, it also features Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce in one of only two non-Sherlock Holmes joint screen appearances, the other being a brief cameo in 1943’s Crazy House. There have been just two Creek DVDs so far, with an adequate transfer of a vintage print. However, 2022 saw the completion of a gleaming 4K restoration from the original three-strip Technicolor negative which, hopefully, will eventually become widely available.
- US: Universal VHS (1999) and DVD-R (2014) – NTSC, region 0; plays anywhere
- Spain: Universal DVD (2010)
That Rebecca hat is back: this time, Joan’s glamorous get-up is no mistake
- Frenchman’s Creek – Laura Boyes
- Frenchman’s Creek – John McElwee
- Frenchman’s Creek – Farran Nehme
- Frenchman’s Creek – BasilRathbone.net
- Frenchman’s Creek – Maria Elena de las Carreras
Getting the point: No real hair anywhere in this photo either, with Joan giving the Baz a deadly dose of Dial M for Murder. This scene appeared in Seein’ Stars, athlete-turned-artist Feg Murray’s syndicated comic strip.
1998 remake
Leaving her husband and the wealthy life of Royal London society behind, a distraught Dona St. Columb retreats to her country estate in Cornwall. In search of peace and solitude, she encounters the exact opposite. French pirates have overthrown the city and gained control of the local community. In fact, one pirate is living in her family’s home and hiding his boat in a creek within their grounds. Dona attempts to rid her house of the Frenchman but, surprisingly finds the rebellious character to be quite intriguing, possessing an attitude unlike the sophisticated men of London. Now, she finds herself caught between her growing affection for the pirate and the local community’s attempt to defeat the raiders and capture the Frenchman. Set in the days of the Restoration, Tara Fitzgerald (The Woman in White) and Anthony Delon recreate classic romance in Daphne du Maurier’s enduring story of piracy and betrayal. – US PBS VHS/DVD
- US: PBS VHS (1998) and DVD (2006)
- UK: Carlton VHS (1999)
- Sweden: Atlantic Film DVD/alt (2007) info, also in 2-DVD/alt w/Doctor Zhivago (2002)
This UK TV movie is much more than a straight retread, as it hews closer to historical fact and strays even further from the novel than the earlier adaptation, upping the violence quotient along the way. Sumptuously shot on 35mm film and begging for a decent Blu-ray, so far its only physical releases are standard definition, while the HD stream is limited to the US – most frustrating for a British film. These are the legit viewing options for this spirited, gritty epic.
- Hungary: Cinetel DVD (2015)
- Australia: Shock DVD/alt/alt (2011), also in 7-DVD Classic Literature on Film – NTSC, region 0; plays anywhere
- Via Vision 4-DVD Literary Adaptation Collection 1 (2021)
On the radio
There are five English-language cast dramatisations for radio from both sides of the Atlantic, three of which are currently available. The first has Fontaine reprising her film role, and the third is also from the US while the most recent is from the UK and the only one in stereo.
- Lux Radio Theatre, February 10, 1947 – Joan Fontaine and David Niven
- BBC Light Programme, 1951 – Beatrice Bevan and Raf de la Torre; Radio Times
- Theater of Romance, May 22, 1954 – Betty Lou Gerson and Whitfield Connor
- BBC Radio 4 Saturday Night Theatre, 1976 – Sheila Ruskin and David Buck
- BBC Radio 4, 1989 – Lorna Heilbron and Struan Roger | MP3, cass/alt
1989 version UK cassette
Solo readings
UK cassette: its Gary Blythe illustration also adorned a tie-in paperback which was later reissued as a tie-in with the 1998 remake
To date, there have been four serialised BBC Radio readings from 1948, 1963, 2012 and 2024; and four UK audiobooks:
- Random House, read by Daniel Massey (1992) cass (reissue) and tie-in paperback
- Hodder Headline, read by John Nettles (1997) 3-CD and cass, also in 9-CD DdM Collection and cass
- Cover to Cover, read by John Castle (1999) MP3-CD and cass
- W.F. Howes, read by Annabel Scholey (2024) MP3
Documentaires du Maurier
- DdM on the BBC: Interview (1971) | Desert Island Discs (1977) | Meridian (1989) | DdM Walk – Rebecca (2008) | Woman’s Hour (2013) Mastermind (2021) | Open Book (2024) | Opening Lines/ep 2
There have been at least seven documentaries on the life and work of Daphne du Maurier, the first of which is available on several streaming platforms, while others are included on releases of Rebecca. There are too many biographies to mention them all but at least one is essential: Manderley Forever (2018, videos) by Tatiana de Rosnay, who also contributes to her subject’s latest documentary.
- DdM (1971, 50min) BBC iPlayer
- Hitchcock/du Maurier – Neil Sinyard
- DdM’s Vanishing Cornwall (1971) – directed by her son Christian Browning; book tie-in (1967)
- ‘Let’s Pretend…’ The Make-Believe World of DdM (1977, 45min) – dir. CB
- DdM: A Tribute (1989, 38min); DdM: The Loving Spirit (1993, 52min)
- DdM: A Loving Spirit (1997, 52min)
- The Gothic World of DdM (2008, 19min) – remastered Rebecca discs
- In the Footsteps of Rebecca (2017, 57min) report – restored Rebecca discs
DVD artwork (alt)
On a related note, the biopic Daphne (2007, 90min) is also well worth checking out; it focuses on the author’s alleged affairs with Ellen Doubleday, the wife of her publisher, and the actress Gertrude Lawrence. In 2024, as part of its DdM: Double Exposure season, BBC Radio 4 broadcast Beside Myself with Helena Bonham Carter and Bill Nighy, dramatising a semi-fictional episode from the author’s life.
- Prime Video
- US: 2 entertain DVD (2008)
- UK: 2 entertain DVD (2008)
- France: 2 entertain DVD (2011)
- Hungary: Mirax DVD/alt (2009)
