A Perfect Gentleman
About A Perfect Gentleman
Widow Charlotte Ponson buys the Luny palace in Paris and, with it, a marriage: Marquis Robert de Luny weds her granddaughter Hortense. Hortense adores him. He is bored, and he barely stirs when Colonel Jacques Renard tries to force himself on her, though honor makes him fight a duel. Slightly wounded, and snubbed by his friends, he hides at the estate farm and meets tenant Jean Coubert, his double from an old family lapse. They trade places. Coubert throws Renard out and then tells Hortense who he is. Robert takes the marquis role back for a second duel, lets Renard kill him, and on his deathbed tells Hortense to live with Jean.
Cast & crew
More about A Perfect Gentleman
Vilhelm Bryde produced and co-directed with Gösta Ekman. Hjalmar Bergman wrote the script to Ekman's order. Ivar Johansson is credited on the scenario, and Bryde was art director. Axel Lindblom photographed and edited. Exteriors were shot in Saint-Valery-en-Caux, Paris, Normandy, and Stockholm, with studio work at Filmstaden in Råsunda. Swedish censors, certificate 40042, on 7 December 1927 passed 2,683 meters from age 15 and cut most of Renard's assault on the marquise in act III.
Themes
Making
Jules Sylvain wrote original music for the Röda Kvarn premiere, and Rudolf Sahlberg arranged music for that same opening. Makeup was by Atos Berg and Gunborg Runsten.
Look
Axel Lindblom shot the film at Filmstaden and on location in France and Stockholm, and he also cut it.
Music
Silent, with Swedish intertitles. Jules Sylvain composed music for the Röda Kvarn premiere, arranged by Rudolf Sahlberg.
Notes
- The first public showing was 29 October 1927 at the Kinopalæet in Copenhagen. Sweden opened on 26 December at Röda Kvarn in Stockholm and at houses in Gothenburg, Helsingborg, Norrköping, Sundsvall, Uppsala, and Örebro.
- Ekman said this was his best performance and the film of his he liked most. Bergman's script was later turned into a novella published in 1940.
- Ekman plays both Robert de Luny and Jean Coubert. La Jana, billed as Lary Jana, is Hortense. Karin Swanström is Charlotte Ponson. Hans Albers is Colonel Renard.
- The American title is A Husband by Proxy. In Germany it was Um seine Ehre, in Denmark Den fuldendte gentleman.
- Other catalogues list 105 minutes and 117 minutes beside the 98-minute opening-day figure.
- Otto Jacobsen plays the valet Marcel. Theodor Berthels was assistant director.
Scenes
- Robert catches Renard trying to force Hortense, then fights a duel and comes away with a slight wound he may be faking.
- On his deathbed after the second duel, Robert tells Hortense to take Jean Coubert and go on.
Also available
- Internet Archive (husband-by-proxy_1928)
