Robert G. Vignola | When Knighthood Was in Flower / 1922

 the boy's second husband

by Douglas Messerli

 

William LeBaron (screenplay, adapted by Luther Reed from the novel by Charles Major), Robert G. Vignola When Knighthood Was in Flower / 1922  

 

The first of Marion Davies’ cross-dressing films of the 1920s was Robert G. Vignola’s production of When Knighthood Was in Flower (1922), described at the time—with a budget of  $1,500,000—as the most expensive film ever made. Davies’ companion, William Randolph Hearst, also the film’s producer, featured the film on more than 650 billboards in New York City, 300 subway advertising placards, and in special sections of department stores that sold souvenir books of the  original novel by Charles Major. The film was the second most popular film of the year and Davies was declared the most popular female star of the year, while Rudolph Valentino was named the most popular male figure.

     If nothing else, this swashbuckling costume drama was extremely convincing in its portrayal of King Henry VIII’s (Lyn Harding) court, some of the movie actually filmed outside of Windsor Castle in England.

     Davies plays Mary Tudor, the King’s younger sister, an independent thinking 16-year-old who quickly falls in love with a jouster, Charles Brandon (Forrest Stanley) who, when he beats out the villainous Duke of Buckingham (Pedro de Cordoba), is offered a position in the King’s guards. Mary’s first lady-in-waiting is Lady Jane Bolingbroke (Ruth Shepley) and Brandon’s pal is Sir Edwin Caskoden (Ernest Glendinning), the latter of whom is immediately sent of the Henry to arrange a marriage between his sister and the agèd Louis XII (William Norris) of France.

      Mary wants nothing at all to do with the elderly French King, and secretly arranges for a meeting with Brandon, who teaches her to dance and in general charms her so completely that, against all restrictions, she rushes off to the major prognosticator of the day, Grammont (Gustav von Seyffertitz) who foretells that she will marry Louis and will find happiness only upon his death.

      Buckingham, who has been closely watching Mary and Brandon, attempts to capture Mary as she returns from her illegal visit, but Brandon intercedes, killing several of Buckingham’s henchmen. In revenge the Duke arranges to have Brandon arrested for the killings during a ball held at court; when Henry hears of the charges, he sentences Brandon to be locked away in the Tower and tortured.

     Mary, however, manipulates her brother so that he frees him, planning her own escape with Brandon, dressing herself as a young boy.

       Rushing off to a seaside inn before escaping to the continent and perhaps to New Spain to where Brandon has been ordered to go into exile, Mary as the boy orders up a full meal as Brandon goes off to arrange for their voyage. Course ruffians, also dining at the inn, spot the attractive young man, mocking him for effeminate ways. Their leader, who finds the boy to be pretty as a lady even toys with him sexually, while Mary, to save herself from his manhandling, finally pulls out a sword and duels with him. Davies actually does a credible job of playing an early Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. as Brandon, who has returned, is restrained by the blackguard’s friends and forced to observe. Finally, he breaks free and kills the bully only be captured by Henry VIII and his soldiers who have followed in chase.

       Once more, Brandon is locked up, this time sentenced to death.

 

      The very next morning Henry’s current wife Queen Catherine (Teresa Maxwell-Conover) descends upon the girl with the King’s tailor (William Kent) who serves this movie as the gay sissy, placing before the diffident girl sheath after sheath of fabric, all of which are dismissed by Mary, as she tosses the full rolls out the door and, finally, upon the tailor himself. Come to pay a visit to his sister, Henry is outraged by her behavior, insisting that he will see his sister married that very day and orders Brandon to be beheaded.

      In order to save Brandon, Mary agrees to marry the old French King but only on the condition that she may chose her second husband, if Louis XII were to die, Henry reluctantly agreeing just to escape the family scandal and the important ties with France if she were to refuse Louis’ offer.

      But meanwhile Brandon has just been sentenced to publicly decapitated, and in order to postpone the act, the court fool keeps climbing the steps to the beheading stage and jesting to his audience until Caskoden arrives to save the day.

 

     The long scene in which Mary and Louis parade through the streets of Paris on their way to their wedding is quite remarkable, with a full carriage in which Mary sits, a horse on which Louis is uncomfortably perched and continues to almost fall off, and vast crowds to cheer the couple on.

     The scenes that follow, as Louis attempts to demonstrate, quite unsuccessfully, his youthfulness might come directly out of the paintings of Jean-Honoré Fragonard or François Boucher as he plays games of blind-man’s bluff. Mary seems to have him well in control, even insisting that he cannot share her bed. Yet she is vexed by the presence of his nephew Francis I, who is determined to marry the English bride the moment his uncle dies and hopeful that he may sexually compromise her even before Louis’ death. She warns Caskoden of the situation, demanding he send for Brandon immediately.

 

     The King’s death comes before she might even have imagined, and Francis immediately locks the Queen away in her bedroom, appearing through a hidden door to have his way with her; but as in all such romantic tales, his plans are foiled as Brandon arrives, clumsily climbs to Mary’s balcony, ties up Francis, and escapes with Mary, the two racing away on horses, foiling the French guards by leaping, horses and all, in the river’s waters from a bridge, and returning to England already married.

       Having forgotten his promise to Mary, Henry is just as determined to have his sister marry Francis, but she and Brandon arrive to remind him of his promise, backed up by Cardinal Woolsey (Arthur Forrest). When Buckingham declares that no royal can marry a commoner, Mary simply demands her brother name Brandon a Duke, which Henry immediately does, our story ending just as Grammont had foretold.

        This film was restored in 2017 with music, incorporating Victor Herbert’s original songs, by Ben Model.

    

Los Angeles, May 4, 2022

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (May 2022).