Francois Villon (Ronald
Coleman) begins the film If I Were King
as a thief. Along with a few other men he is stealing food from the king’s
supply. The guards get wind of the break in and storm the supply building.
Francois manages to get away to the home of the Franciscan priest who raised
him. The Father recalls that Francois has always been a troublemaker since the
moment he took him in as a boy. The guards have tracked Francois to the house.
The Father cannot lie so Francois tells him to make up a story the best he can
without telling a lie. Francois runs upstairs and so do the guards a few
moments later. The guards find sheets tied to a bed hanging out the window so
they follow it. A few seconds later Francois comes walking in from another room
having never gone out the window.
The Father takes Francois to church to repent for his
sins. That does not work out very well because Francois eyes a beautiful woman
and leaves the Father without a sound by himself. The beautiful woman is
Katherine (Frances Dee) who is part of the king’s court. He follows her outside
to her carriage where the guards come because they believe he is bothering
Katherine. The head of the guards recognizes Francois and goes to arrest him. A
dock worker who Francois had tied up the night before is asked if he recognizes
Francois. The worker says no he has never seen Francois in his life. Without
the witness’s recognition the guards let Francois go.
King Louis XI (Basil Rathbone) has a man who was captured
for the raid on the supplies tortured. The prisoner reveals how to find
Francois and his band of thieves. Louis and his aid dress in black robes and
bring with them a certain kind of arrow that will reveal they are a part of
some kind of group. Everyone in the pub mocks the king and says how horrible he
is. Francois comes strolling in with his stolen goods for the pub owner to
sell. The king’s guards come storming in and a large fight breaks out. Louis
has Francois and all his friends arrested.
Some things happen that I did not pay attention to and
Louis makes Francois his new leader of the guards as punishment since Francois
does not like authority. Francois uses his new position to his advantage for
the good of the people. He acts like he would if he were king.
At some point I lost interest because I was totally
exhausted and the storyline became a little boring.
I watched If I Were King for Frances Dee. A lot of her
films are difficult to find so when I found this on YouTube I jumped on
watching it. Dee is, as always, incredibly beautiful. Her acting is wonderful
too. Ronald Coleman was so fantastic as Francois. I loved seeing him act like a
little kid at the beginning. I am so used to see him in these roles where he is
a typical sophisticated Englishman that seeing him as a lively and charming
thief was so enjoyable. Basil Rathbone deserves all the mention because his portrayal
of Louis XI was hilarious. He put on this silly kind of high pitched voice that
I was a little taken aback when I first heard him.
Edith Head designed the costumes. The woman was
ridiculously talented creating beautiful costumes. She made Frances Dee even
more stunning.
If I Were King
is not a terrible classic film. As I said I was totally exhausted when I watched
this and really unfortunately did not give it the attention I should have. If I Were King is worth watching at
least once and is available to view in full YouTube.
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