An average movie

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was directed by Cecil B. DeMille and since it was available on YouTube, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it was actually a really obscure directorial effort from DeMille and, to be honest, it wasn’t really good, I’m afraid. The fact that the copy I saw was of a rather poor quality probably didn’t help but, as far as I was concerned, it was a rather typical romantic melodrama, a genre that seemed to be really popular at the time. In this case, I was rather amazed how convoluted the damned thing was. I mean, I have seen my share of romantic tales but it was probably one of the weirdest love triangles I have seen so far. Indeed, Marian Ramsay was more or less cheating with a deposed king instead of some average guy. The weird thing was how she was actually flirting with this guy so publicly. At some point, I thought this Jaromir was some kind of con artist who was trying to trick her husband into some fake wheat deal but it would be giving this movie too much credit. Instead, to get rid off the guy, Michael Ramsay actually broke a (real) wheat deal with the government of the country of this deposed king with the condition that they would give him back his throne. So, like I said, it was all pretty convoluted… To make the whole thing even more random, they had a daughter who was also involved in her own love story. In her case, it was at first weird and even cringe-inducing to see a 17 year-old girl chasing a guy who was probably in his 40’s but  I’m afraid it’s inherent to the time period. Another completely random scene was when this girl tried to explain something to her lover and they switched the scenery to the prehistoric age as if it would make her argument more potent this way. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing was rather forgettable, I guess it might still be worth a look, at least, if you like the genre or if you are interested in Cecil B. DeMille’s work. 

6/10