Charles Boyer Movies
With his passionate, deep-set eyes, classical features, and ultra-suave manner, it is small wonder that French actor Charles Boyer was known as one of the great cinematic lovers. During the 20s, Boyer made a few nondescript silent films but was primarily a theatrical actor. From 1929-31 he made an unsuccessful attempt to make it in Hollywood before returning to Europe until 1934 when his films began to win public favor. He became a true star with Garden of Allah (1936), and went on to play opposite the most alluring actresses of the 30s and 40s, including Dorothy Lamarr, Ingrid Bergman, and Greta Garbo. During World War II he became active in encouraging French-American relations and established the French Research Foundation, for which he was awarded a special Academy Award in 1942 for "progressive cultural achievement" (he was nominated as an actor four times but never won). Later Boyer became an American citizen and went on to play more mature roles, including the occasional stage appearance (notably in Shaw's Don Juan in Hell). With actors Dick Powell and David Niven, Boyer co-founded Four Star Television in 1951, starring in many of the company's TV productions during the 50s and 60s. His career tapered off after the suicide of his 21-year-old son in 1965, after which he mostly made European films, though he returned to America to appear as the ancient High Lama in the musical remake of Lost Horizon (1973). He won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for his work in Stavisky, his final performance. Two days after his wife of forty-plus years, actress Patricia Peterson, died of cancer in 1978, he took his own life with an overdose of Seconal. ~ All Movie Guide- 1957
First staged on Broadway in 1940 with Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne and Montgomery Clift in the starring roles, Robert Sherwood's Pulitzer Prize-winning play There Shall Be No Night was originally set in Finland in the years before the outbreak of WW2. For this Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation, the character names have been altered and the setting changed to Hungary just prior to the 1956 Soviet invasion, but otherwise the plot remains substantially the same. Charles Boyer and Katherine Cornell star as Nobel Prize-winning Hungarian scientist Karoly Valkay and his American-born wife Miranda. Though a fiercely outspoken critic of Communist totalitarianism, Valkay is essentially a pacifist, and hopes that Hungary will someday regain its freedom without bloodshed. But when the Russians start rattling their sabers, Valkay is shamed into renouncing his pacifism by his son Erik (Bradford Dillman), who has joined the Hungarian freedom fighters. Adapted for television by Morton Wishengrad, There Shall be No Night was originally telecast live and in color. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Boyer, Katharine Cornell, (more)
- 1956
Forewarned that starstruck Lucy (Lucille Ball) and Ethel (Vivian Vance) intend to accost French film idol Charles Boyer at a Parisian sidewalk restaurant, Ricky (Desi Arnaz) manages to reach Boyer first to prepare the poor fellow for the assault to come. The amused actor decide to play a trick on Lucy, pretending not to be "himself" but instead a Charles Boyer lookalike named Maurice DuBois. The situation is milked to the last drop when Lucy hires "Maurice DuBois" to pose as Charles Boyer in order to arouse Ricky's jealousy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Boyer, Jack Chefe, (more)
- 1956
Screen star Charles Boyer made a rare return to his home turf in the Franco-Italian Paris Palace Hotel. Boyer plays Delomel, a roguish middle-aged husband who uses an attack of gout as an excuse to escape his spouse. While staying at the titular hotel, Delomel gets mixed up with manicurist Francoise (Francoise Arnoul) and garage mechanic Gerard (Roberto Rosso), both of whom are posing as wealthy socialites. Though he's wise to their subterfuge, Delomel takes a liking to Francoise and Gerard and spends the rest of the film helping them pull off their deception. The star power of Charles Boyer makes Paris Palace Hotel seem far more important a film than it really is. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Boyer, Françoise Arnoul, (more)
Razzle-dazzle showman Michael Todd hocked everything he had to make this spectacular presentation of Jules Verne's 1872 novel Around the World in 80 Days, the second film to be lensed in the wide-screen Todd-AO production. Nearly as fascinating as the finished product are the many in-production anecdotes concerning Todd's efforts to pull the wool over the eyes of local authorities in order to cadge the film's round-the-world location shots--not to mention the wheeling and dealing to convince over forty top celebrities to appear in cameo roles. David Niven heads the huge cast as ultra-precise, supremely punctual Phileas Fogg, who places a 20,000-pound wager with several fellow members of London Reform Club, insisting that he can go around the world in eighty days (this, remember, is 1872). Together with his resourceful valet Passepartout (Cantinflas), Fogg sets out on his world-girdling journey from Paris via balloon. Meanwhile, suspicion grows that Fogg has stolen his 20,000 pounds from Bank of England. Diligent Inspector Fix (Robert Newton) is sent out by the bank's president (Robert Morley) to bring Fogg to justice. Hopscotching around the globe, Fogg pauses in Spain, where Passepartout engages in a comic bullfight (a specialty of Cantinflas). In India, Fogg and Passepartout rescue young widow Princess Aouda (Shirley MacLaine, in her third film) from being forced into committing suicide so that she may join her late husband. The threesome visit Hong Kong, Japan, San Francisco, and the Wild West. Only hours short of winning his wager, Fogg is arrested by the diligent Inspector Fixx. Though exonerated of the bank robbery charges, he has lost everything--except the love of the winsome Aouda. But salvation is at hand when Passepartout discovers that, by crossing the International Date Line, there's still time to reach the Reform Club. Will they make it? See for yourself. Among the film's 46 guest stars, the most memorable include Marlene Dietrich, Charles Boyer, Jose Greco, Frank Sinatra, Peter Lorre, Red Skelton, Buster Keaton, John Mills, and Beatrice Lillie. All were paid in barter--Ronald Colman did his brief bit for a new car. Newscaster Edward R. Murrow provides opening narration, and there's a tantalizing clip from Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon (1902). Offering a little something for everyone, Around the World in 80 Days is nothing less than an extravaganza, and it won 5 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Cinematography. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Niven, Cantinflas, (more)
- 1955
William Gibson's novel The Cobweb was brought to the screen by MGM with an impressive, hand-picked cast. Richard Widmark plays the head of a posh psychiatric clinic. Widmark's wife Gloria Grahame jockeys for the honor of selecting new drapes for the hospital's library. One wouldn't think that such a trivial decision would spark so much melodrama; but thanks to those drapes, we are allowed to probe the disturbed psyches of martinet business affairs director Lillian Gish, philandering doctor Charles Boyer, lonely activities director Lauren Bacall, and suicidal patient John Kerr. Oscar Levant, who spent most of his life in and out of "little white rooms", is ideally cast as a neurotic musician, while Fay Wray has a superb cameo as Boyer's long-suffering wife. Cobweb served as the screen debuts for both John Kerr and Susan Strasberg. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Widmark, Lauren Bacall, (more)
- 1955
Sophia Loren was twenty-one years old when she starred in this lightly spicy comedy. Antoinette (Loren) is an attractive young woman who is adjusting her stockings one day when a passing news photographer snaps her picture. To Antoinette's shock, the picture appears on the front page of one of Rome's biggest newspapers, and she's angered and embarrassed by the attention; soon, she finds herself fighting off the lustful attentions of Corrado (Marcello Mastroianni), the photographer who turned her into an unwitting cheesecake star, and Count Gregorio (Charles Boyer), a nobleman who tells Antoinette that he can make her a movie star. However, while the Count's attentions have little to do with any real effort to bring her to stardom, in time Corrado finds himself genuinely falling in love with the beautiful Antoinette. Fortuna Di Essere Donna was released in the United States under the titles Lucky To Be A Woman and What A Woman! ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Boyer, Sophia Loren, (more)
The most frequently filmed of Emile Zola's works, Nana was given a slick, polished cinemazation by French- filmmaker Christian-Jacque in 1955. Martine Carol is well (if predictably) cast in the title role, playing a poverty-stricken Parisian girl who rises to prominence as a high-priced whore. Nana is content to love 'em and leave 'em until she becomes the mistress of government-official Charles Boyer. Her genuine love for Boyer results in disgrace and disaster for them both. While less inhibited than the bowdlerized 1934 Sam Goldwyn production of Nana, this French/Italian co-production is rather far afield from the Zola original. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martine Carol, Charles Boyer, (more)
- 1953
During the early days of East Indian independence in 1947, a native rebellion threatens a hotel full of Britishers, Europeans and Americans. Gunrunner Alan Ladd could care less about anything other than his own neck. Ladd runs up against the resistance of a pacifist Indian leader (Charles Boyer), who hopes to quell the factional disturbances. Falling in love with Deborah Kerr, blind daughter of missionary Cecil Kellaway, Ladd decides to forego mercenary involvement in India's internal affairs and to shepherd the stranded non-Indians to safety. Paramount was overproducing again in 1951, so Thunder in the East didn't go into release until 1953, at which time its story was outdated enough to result in utter indifference from the paying public. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Ladd, Deborah Kerr, (more)
Max Ophüls' masterpiece stars Danielle Darrieux as the titular Madame Louise de..., who in the film's opening scenes is forced to discreetly sell a pair of earrings, a gift from her military officer husband Andre (Charles Boyer), in order to make good on her debts. After she claims the earrings to be lost, the story of their possible theft hits the newspapers, prompting the jeweler who bought them (Jean Debucourt) to secretly sell them back to Andre, who then gives him to his mistress Lola (Lia Di Leo) as she prepares to leave for a holiday in Constantinople. There, the earrings again change hands as Lola pawns them to cover her gambling losses. They are then purchased by Donati, an Italian diplomat (Vittorio de Sica) on his way to France to meet with Andre. Of course, the earrings soon find their way back to Louise. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Boyer, Danielle Darrieux, (more)
- 1952
The Happy Time was adapted from the long-running Broadway play by Samuel Taylor, which in turn was based on the novel by Robert Fontaine. Set in Quebec during the early part of the 20th century, the film concentrates on the activities of a large French-Canadian family headed by Charles Boyer. Most of the humor arises from "coming of age" complications and sexual awakenings, especially when worldly prodigal son Louis Jourdan returns to the fold and exercises his influence on impressionable young Bobby Driscoll. Not permitted to include the racier portions of the play, director Richard Fleischer compensated by adopting a frenetic, farcelike pace, which works about half the time. Happy Time was later musicalized on Broadway in the 1960s, with Robert Goulet in the Louis Jourdan part. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Boyer, Louis Jourdan, (more)
- 1951
A remake of the French Le Corbeau ("The Raven"), The Thirteenth Letter is a film noir in a curious setting -- a rural village deep in Quebec, seemingly sleepy and typical. Dr. Laurent (Charles Boyer) returns from a medical convention in Montreal, anxious to see his much younger wife, Cora (Constance Smith). Cora is attracted to Dr. Pearson (Michael Rennie), a young doctor who moved into the town soon after his unfaithful wife killed herself. Soon Pearson, Laurent and Cora all receive letters -- signed "the Raven" -- hinting at an affair between Pearson and Cora. Soon more poison pen letters are showing up around town, including one which insinuates that Pearson has not been telling the truth about the medical condition of a wounded war hero. Distraught, the veteran takes his life, unaware that the information in the letter was a lie. Meanwhile, Pearson has become attracted to Denise, (Linda Darnell), a romance-starved young woman born with a clubfoot. As suspicion builds about who is sending the letters -- and about whether Pearson should be trusted -- the Mayor takes charge of the investigation, and Pearson doubles his efforts to prove his innocence. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Darnell, Charles Boyer, (more)
- 1951
Since its lapse into public domain in 1978, First Legion has joined Love Affair and Algiers as the most readily available of Charles Boyer's films. Boyer plays Fr. Marc Arnoux, the head of St. Gregory's seminary, who can never quite shake the feeling that he shouldn't have given up his career as an attorney. His fellow Jesuit priests likewise occasionally question their calling, especially crotchety Msgr. Michael Carey (William Demarest). One by one, however, the priests are won over by various "miracles" visited upon them. Barbara Rush co-stars as a crippled girl who indirectly benefits from the priests' renewed faith. The First Legion was produced and directed with surprising restraint by Douglas Sirk. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Boyer, William Demarest, (more)
Based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, Arch of Triumph is a complicated war romance directed by Lewis Milestone. Dr. Ravic (Charles Boyer) is a refugee physician practicing medicine illegally in Paris under a false name. He saves Joan Madou (Ingrid Bergman) from committing suicide after the sudden death of her lover. He gets her a job singing at the nightclub where his only friend, Boris Morosov (Louis Calhern), is the doorman. Joan falls in love with Ravic, but he is deported and she finds herself the mistress of wealthy Alex (Stephan Bekassy). Meanwhile, Ravic seeks revenge against a Nazi officer (Charles Laughton) and war is declared between France and Germany. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Bekassy, Charles Boyer, (more)
- 1947
A Woman's Vengeance concerns a "likely" murderer, Henry Maurier, played by Charles Boyer. It is no secret that Maurier is enamored with young Doris (Ann Blyth), but is his love for the girl motive enough for Maurier to murder his invalid wife? Only family friend Dr. Libbard (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) believes in Maurier, and it is Libbard who eventually extracts a confession from the real killer -- just seconds before Maurier is to be executed. Without giving the game away, we'll note that the supporting cast includes Jessica Tandy, Mildred Natwick, and John Williams (Rachel Kempson couldn't have played the murderer, inasmuch as she's the victim). A Woman's Vengeance was adapted by Aldous Huxley (the same) from his own story The Gioconda Smile. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Boyer, Ann Blyth, (more)
- 1946
The time is just prior to World War II. Lovely Cluny Brown (Jennifer Jones) is the niece of a London plumber; when her uncle is indisposed, Cluny rolls up her sleeves and takes a plumbing job at a society home, where she meets a handsome Czech author (Charles Boyer) - a refugee who has fled the Nazis and now resides with a snobbish and stuck-up family. Hoping to advance herself socially, Cluny accepts a position as a maid in a fancy country home, where she once more meets the Czech author, who is a house guest; they promptly fall for each other, and Cluny follows his lead by turning her nose up at stiff-necked English propriety. Cluny Brown is directed by the matchless Ernst Lubitsch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Norman Ainsley, Jennifer Jones, (more)
La Bataille du Rail (Battle of the Rails) is regarded by many cineastes as the one truly great French "resistance" film. Based on fact, the episodic plotline details the courageous efforts by French railray workers to sabotage Nazi reinforcement-troop trains. The film's thesis is that this underground activity was largely responsible for the allied victory on D-Day. Writer-director Rene Clement enhanced the reality of the story by filming on actual locations and using genuine railway employees and resistance fighters in the cast. Admittedly slow going at times, La Bataille du Rail is more successful as a morale-booster than as pure entertainment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Daurand, Tony Laurent, (more)
- 1945
A Graham Greene novel was the source of the Warner Bros. espionage thriller Confidential Agent. Charles Boyer stars as Denard, a former concert musician operating as anti-Fascist secret agent in the Spanish Civil War. While negotiating with the neutral British for some much needed fuel supplies, Denard falls in love with gorgeous Rose Cullen (Lauren Bacall) Sympathetic to his cause, Rose helps Denard contend with such backstabbing villains as Contreras (Peter Lorre) and Mrs. Melandy (Katina Paxinou, who'd ironically won an Academy Award for her sympathetic potrayal in another Spanish Civil War drama, For Whom the Bell Tolls). Critics in 1945 liked Confidential Agent but trounced leading lady Lauren Bacall, suggesting that she was merely a pretty amateur who'd coasted to stardom via her associations with actor Humphrey Bogart and director Howard Hawks. At this point in her career, Bacall was inclined to agree with her detractors-though in time, she certainly proved them wrong. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Boyer, Lauren Bacall, (more)
- 1944
Ingrid Bergman won her first of three Oscars for this suspense thriller, crafted with surprising tautness by normally genteel "women's picture" director George Cukor. Bergman stars as Paula Alquist, a late 19th century English singer studying music in Italy. However, Paula abandons her studies because she's fallen in love with dapper, handsome Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer). The couple marries and returns to the U.K. and a home inherited by Paula from her aunt, herself a famous singer, who was mysteriously murdered in the house ten years before. Once they have moved in, Gregory, who is in reality a jewel thief and the murderer of Paula's aunt, launches a campaign of terror designed to drive his new bride insane. Though Paula is certain that she sees the house's gaslights dim every evening and that there are strange noises coming from the attic, Gregory convinces Paula that she's imagining things. Gregory's efforts to make Paula unstable are aided by an impertinent maid, Nancy (teenager Angela Lansbury in her feature film debut). Meanwhile, a Scotland Yard inspector, Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotten), becomes suspicious of Gregory and sympathetic to Paula's plight. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, (more)
- 1944
The title Together Again referred to the fact that frequent costarsIrene Dunne and Charles Boyer were once more united on film. Dunne plays the lady mayor of a small Vermont town. Boyer portrays a big-city sculptor, hired to erect a statue in the memory of Irene's husband, the former mayor. Dunne and Boyer fall in love, but there's plenty of interference from snoops, gossips and well-meaning relatives. Further muddying the waters is Dunne's daughter Mona Freeman, who mistakenly believes that Boyer has eyes for her. Foxy father-in-law Charles Coburn is the cupidic catalyst in getting Dunne and Boyer to the altar by film's end. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, (more)
- 1943
In the tradition of his earlier Carnival in Flanders and Tales of Manhattan, director Julien Duvivier's Flesh and Fantasy is a "pormanteau" film, consisting of several short stories. Linking the three tales unfolded herein are clubmen Doakes (Robert Benchley) and Davis (David Hoffman), who carry on a spirited debate about Destiny. In the first story, homely Henrietta (Betty Field) is made beautiful through the love of handsome Mardi Gras reveller Michael (Robert Cummings)-and the help of an enigmatic mask-maker (Edgar Barrier). The second story, based on Oscar Wilde's "Lord Arthur Saville's Crime", concerns a fortune teller named Septimus Podgers (Thomas Mitchell) who predicts that socialite Marshall Tyler (Edward G. Robinson) will commit a murder. In the final tale, psychic high wire artist Paul Gaspar (Charles Boyer) dreams that he will meet his doom during the performance of his act-and then falls in love with Joan Stanley (Barbara Stanwyck), who looks exactly like the girl who appeared in that dream. A fourth story, detailing the doomed romance between a fugitive from justice (Alan Curtis) and a blind girl (Gloria Jean), was cut from Flesh and Fantasy, then expanded and released separately as Destiny (1944). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward G. Robinson, Charles Boyer, (more)
- 1943
Warner Bros.' The Constant Nymph was the third filmization of Margaret Dean's 1924 novel; the first two were filmed in Britain in 1928 and 1933 by producer Michael Balcon. The plot was substantially the same in all three versions: A self-centered European musician (Charles Boyer) is idolized by a young Belgian girl (Joan Fontaine) with a serious heart condition. Though he is fond of the girl, the composer opts for a wealthy marriage to her socialite cousin (Alexis Smith)--and lives to regret the move. Peter Lorre, taking a respite from villainous roles, is quite effective as a philosophical family friend. Composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold's six-minute symphonic tone poem for Constant Nymph was given class-A treatment in a specially recorded RCA Victor orchestration in 1972. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Boyer, Joan Fontaine, (more)
Heart of a Nation was filmed in 1940, just after the Nazi occupation of Paris. The film traces the fortunes of the Froment family of Montmartre, from the Franco-Prussian war of 1871 to World War II. Comedy and tragedy are deftly blended throughout; Raimu's visit to the Moulin Rouge is as hilarious as Michele Morgan's loss of an arm during World War I is heartbreaking. When the Nazis became privy to the existence of Heart of a Nation, they ordered its director (Julien Duvivier) arrested and the negative destroyed. Both director and negative managed to escape to the U.S., where a dubbed version of Heart of a Nation was finally made available in 1943. Intriguingly enough, the man responsible for the salvation of the film was a German officer who happened to be a fan of Duvivier's work. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michèle Morgan, Suzy Prim, (more)
- 1942
Tales of Manhattan is a sumptuous multipart film centered around a formal tailcoat. The coat is specially designed for stage actor Charles Boyer, who wears it during a rendezvous with his lady friend (Rita Hayworth). The lady's husband (Thomas Mitchell) shoots Boyer, thus the tailcoat is damaged merchandise and sold at a discount to a bridegroom (Cesar Romero). When the groom's peccadillos catch up to him, the bride (Ginger Rogers) chooses to marry the best man (Henry Fonda) instead, and the coat is shipped off to a second hand store. It is purchased by a would-be composer (Charles Laughton), who wears it the night that he is to conduct his first symphony; alas, the coat is too tight and tears apart, nearly ruining the conductor's debut. Stitched back together, the coat is donated to a skid row mission, wherein the kindly proprietor gives the coat to a down and out drunkard (Edward G. Robinson) so that the shabby gentleman can attend his 25th college reunion. Later on, the coat is stolen by a crook (J. Carroll Naish) in order to gain entrance to a fancy charity ball. The crook holds up the ball and stuffs the loot in the pockets of the coat, but while escaping in an airplane he loses the outer garment. The coat floats down to an impoverished African American shanty community; a farmer (Paul Robeson) decides to distribute the "money from heaven" amongst his needy neighbors. At the end, the tattered coat adorns the shoulders of a scarecrow. Tales of Manhattan is one of the best "portmanteau" dramas turned out by Hollywood; it was directed by French expatriate Julien Duvivier, a past master of the multi-story technique. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Boyer, Rita Hayworth, (more)
