France, 1622. The master duellist & assassin known as the "Black Death", Gil de Berault, accidentally finds himself on the wrong side of the Cardinal when he unwittingly violates the Cardinal's edict on duelling by challenging a man who claims he cheated him. Sent to the gallows, he is saved only by the Cardinal's instruction in return for a secret mission – to capture the rebel Duke of Foix & bring him to the Cardinal's chamber to be executed. Along with a master pickpocket named Marius, Berault heads into Foix, where he cons his way into the Duke's castle as an injured guest. But his mission heads into complication when he falls in love with Lady Marguerite, the Duke's feisty sister.
Conrad Veidt was a legend in the early years of cinema – the actor who played the creepy somnambulist Cesare in the horror classic The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, the French king Louis XI in The Beloved Rogue & later in Casablanca. What is amazing about Veidt is that he excelled in both silent cinema & the new-fangled "talkies" of the 1930s. Here, he stars as a master assassin & spy who finds his loyalties tested by going onto a mortal mission to save his neck by offering another.
Under the Red Robe is something of a minor (obscure, to be exact) film in the 1930s but the miracle of the digital age has given the film another kind of afterlife on the DVD format – indeed I picked it up on a DVD multipack. The film's plot is okay, if nothing particularly special but it is Veidt himself who makes the film passable. His character's persona – alternating between cold duty & polite manners – is proof that the actor is a legend. Helping him in the mission is the film's dialogue director, Romney Brent (who himself does a good acting turn, making an effective comic relief) & Annabella as the love interest.
Conrad Veidt was a legend in the early years of cinema – the actor who played the creepy somnambulist Cesare in the horror classic The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, the French king Louis XI in The Beloved Rogue & later in Casablanca. What is amazing about Veidt is that he excelled in both silent cinema & the new-fangled "talkies" of the 1930s. Here, he stars as a master assassin & spy who finds his loyalties tested by going onto a mortal mission to save his neck by offering another.
Under the Red Robe is something of a minor (obscure, to be exact) film in the 1930s but the miracle of the digital age has given the film another kind of afterlife on the DVD format – indeed I picked it up on a DVD multipack. The film's plot is okay, if nothing particularly special but it is Veidt himself who makes the film passable. His character's persona – alternating between cold duty & polite manners – is proof that the actor is a legend. Helping him in the mission is the film's dialogue director, Romney Brent (who himself does a good acting turn, making an effective comic relief) & Annabella as the love interest.