Adventures of Captain Fabian (1951) - film review

Léa Mariotte is resentful of her lowly position as housemaid to a wealthy New Orleans family.  She despises them for the part they played in her father’s downfall and burns with the desire for revenge.  One evening, she accidentally kills another servant, in the presence of her admirer George Brissac.  Rather than provide the testimony that will exculpate her, Brissac testifies against Léa and she is tried for murder.  At her trial a well-known sea captain named Fabian comes to her defence and she is set free.  Fabian buys an inn to provide Léa with a livelihood before returning to the high seas.  Brissac is still drawn to Léa and the latter sees an opportunity for revenge.  Léa provokes a scene with Brissac’s father which ends with Brissac murdering the old man.  Having hidden the body, Léa coerces Brissac into marrying her.  Her vengeance has only just begun...

Often cited as Errol Flynn’s worst film, Adventures of Captain Fabian is certainly a shoddy attempt to capitalise on the celebrated image of one of Hollywood’s former icons.  A Franco-American production, shot in Paris and Nice towards the end of Flynn’s career, and with a screenplay (allegedly) written by Flynn, the film is outrageously mis-titled and is so steeped in plot contrivance that you wonder if the whole thing was made just for laughs.  Despite receiving top billing, Flynn only makes a fleeting appearance in the film, either because even he couldn’t bear to recite the dialogue he had (allegedly) written or, more likely, because he was just too expensive.  This was a cheap production – and it shows.

The film is certainly not a masterpiece, but neither is it quite as bad as its reputation suggests.  William Marshall does a respectable job of the direction, managing to crowbar some genuine emotion and tension into the totally implausible narrative.  The cast includes not only some well-known American actors – Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead – but also some highly regarded luminaries of French cinema - Micheline Presle and Victor Francen.

Price gives a wonderfully over the top performance, one that prefigures the camp villainous roles that would become the mainstay of his subsequent career.  Meanwhile, Presle is surprisingly convincing as a calculating vixen in the Joan Crawford mould, an atypical role for an actress who is far better known for playing straight romantic leads.  It is the contributions from these talented performers which makes the film tolerable, if not strangely compelling, but you can’t help cringing at the ludicrously contrived ending.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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