Désirée (1954)

By Wuchak

_**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-