I’d wanted to watch Prince of Foxes (1949) based on a couple costume pix floating around, and finally found it on TCM. Purely as a frock flick, it doesn’t disappoint because the eye candy is strong, if not totally historically accurate. The movie itself isn’t all that compelling, alas, with a somewhat tortured and unbelievable love story strung around some battles. But the thing was filmed on location in Italy and even in black and white, the gorgeous, elaborate settings and costumes are worth looking at!
Apparently the story is based on a popular 1940s historical fiction novel, perhaps the Philippa Fucking Gregory of its day. Because the main character, played by Tyrone Power, is quite the fantasy! He’s pretending to be a nobleman, he’s a painter, he’s a spy, he’s a courtier, he’s a swordsman and battle strategist, and of course he’s a lover to multiple women. The bad guys think he’s on their side, the good guys think he’s on their side, and all the ladies love him. He’s Every Man! To me, he’s wooden, dull, and predictable, his art is weaksauce, he’s a jerk to his mom, and he doesn’t do anything to impress me. sad trombone
Orson Welles plays Caesar Borgia, who employs Power’s character, Andrea Orsini, to do a bunch of stuff that really isn’t important in the end. More important are the costumes by Vittorio Nino Novarese, who was nominated for the Best Costume Design, Black and White, for this movie. The fabrics used are so lux and gorgeous, there’s so much embroidery and trim, it’s really pretty and looks right for the period, which is supposed to be 1500. The clothing styles wander around from mid-1400s to early 1500s to fantasy, and the hair is mostly 1940s. But it could be worse.
I mean, really, look at this frescoed room, and the embroidery on Orsini’s doublet…
Down to little details like Caesar Borgia’s hat badge being a solid representation of the Borgia heraldry.
For example:
Orsini’s paintings are generic paint-by-numbers items, which stand out in these rooms filled with authentic period art. Instead, look at the fabrics used on these fellas.
Even Orsini’s “casual” outfit during a festival (he’s dusted with confetti) is excellent.
The fanciest outfits are when Borgia and Orsini get down to business.
Compare with these original designs:
Legs for days! And proper shoes, not boots!
The men’s costumes seem closer to mid-1400s styles than right at 1500. They wear the short tunics with big sleeves, often with hanging oversleeves, plus tights, and sometimes long coats. There aren’t enough hats in the movie though.
The female lead is Camilla Varano (played by Wanda Hendrix), who Orsini is sent by Borgia to seduce and also murder her elderly husband. Then Borgia could take over that count’s tiny city as part of an ongoing land-grab. But, of course, Orsini and Camilla really fall in love, and it’s OK because her old husband conveniently dies in battle after giving them his blessing, blah blah blah. On to her costumes.
I like that she wears veils, which is appropriate for the period and for her status as a wealthy married woman. Several of her gowns resemble period styles like this:
Orsini and Camilla flirt around a fair bit, both wearing textiles I’d kill for…
He paints her picture while she wears a gown with fantasy touches. The way it’s fitted at her natural waist (not a raised waist) makes it look more modern to me, plus the random floaty sleeves.
Close, but not quite there…
This is a historically accurate head-necklace period, and her’s is correctly sized, but I still side-eye it with the padded roll thing.
This color promo pic cracks me up, just because it would have to be the least historically accurate costume in the whole movie!
Wow, shiny pink lurex, white faux fur, princess seams, and 1940s hair! Though this is just in the promo — her hair doesn’t go this modern in the movie (and yes, in these photos and screencaps, her hair sometimes looks dark and sometimes blonde, IDK why; it’s blonde-ish in the flick).
Then a bit of black for mourning after her husband is dead, and Orsini shows off another excellent doublet sleeve.
This stripey coat is gorgeous and does remind me of period imagery.
Note how the same gown with embroidered sleeves is worn in several scenes, first with the coat and then without.
In the end, the two get married, with Camilla wearing a white satin embroidered gown in a more 1940s style than 1500s.
Have you seen Prince of Foxes?
Find this frock flick at:
I loved this film when I was a kid! It was shown as a filler on Saturday afternoons. There’s a particularly gruesome scene later on which I loved, since I wasn’t usually allowed to see those kinds of things.
Interesting guy, Power: he was great in “Nightmare Alley” and preferred working on stage. Looking bored in costume dramas were the price of being gorgeous, I guess.
The author, Samuel Shellabarger, also wrote The Captain From Castile, which was the basis for another Power film in 1947. His historical novels were big, (CfC is 632 pages long), and immersive in detail of far-off times and places. The sets in PoF were in may cases the actual buildings and rooms in which the scene is set. Filming in Europe post-war was a way for studios to use monies they had there but could not export.
I can remember that movie. I loved Power’s performance and as he always was the lady’s men. The castle’s and rooms in this movie were looking very authentic and maybe this was the reason for my love for the film. Cesare Borgia is typically portrayed as somehow old and very much not the real enfant terrible of the period – although it’ Orson Welles in his prime. The battle sequences are small and somehow not really confincing although the armour is looking OK for the 1940s. Felix Aylmer always had the same roles of old, weak, unhealthy characters and it would be more pleasing if he would be a real thread to the love affair and more charismatic etc..