Beau Brummel
About Beau Brummel
In 1795 Beau Brummel is a penniless captain in the Tenth Hussars. He loves Margery, a tradesman’s daughter. She marries Lord Alvanley for the rank. At a regimental dinner he gets the Prince of Wales out of a husband’s rage and attaches himself to the prince. By 1811 he sets London’s dress. A duel with Lord Henry Stanhope, over Lady Hester, whom he does not love, helps his enemies turn the prince. A meeting with the Duchess of York is walked in on by the prince and Margery. The offered embassy fails. Creditors close in. He and his butler Mortimer run to Calais. Years later the prince, now George IV, comes to Calais with the widowed Margery. She asks Brummel to marry her. He says he is used up. In old age, in the Bon Saveur hospital prison, his mind gone, he hears that the king is dead and Margery is ill. The film ends with the two spirits meeting after both have died.
Cast & crew
More about Beau Brummel
Harry Beaumont directed. Dorothy Farnum adapted Clyde Fitch’s 1890 play, which Richard Mansfield had played. David Abel photographed. Howard Bretherton edited. Warner released it on 30 March 1924. It runs 135 minutes. John Barrymore is Brummel. Mary Astor is Margery. Willard Louis, Carmel Myers, Irene Rich, and Alec B. Francis are billed. The film title uses one l in Brummel. The man is Beau Brummell. Warner did not renew the copyright. It entered the public domain in the United States in 1952.
Themes
Making
Beaumont follows Fitch from the hussar dinner to the prince’s favor and then to the room in Calais. The last shot is not a reconciliation in life. Both are dead.
Look
David Abel shot the regiment dinner, the London rooms where dress is judged, and the Calais lodging.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
Public domain in the United States since 1952. A 135-minute print survives.
Notes
- William Humphrey and Richard Tucker are also billed.
- Diana Barrymore was given a screening years after her father’s death because she had never seen him in a silent film.
- The Calais scenes are the debt flight. The hospital prison is the last room.
- A Commons copy carries the 1924 title.
Scenes
- He pulls the Prince of Wales out of a husband’s scene and stays.
- The prince and Margery walk in on the Duchess of York rendezvous.
- In Calais the widowed Margery proposes. He refuses.
- In the hospital prison he is told the king and Margery are gone. The spirits meet.
Influenced by
- Beau Brummel (Clyde Fitch, 1890)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Beau Brummel (1924).webm)
