Prince Of Foxes 49

Description

Italian tyrant Cesare Borgia sends a Renaissance man to seduce a duke s wife.Although it is spectacularly photographed, there s no question about the main draw of Prince of Foxes: Orson Welles easily pilfers every scene he s in. Tyrone Power is the nominal star, but Welles gets to play the larger-than-life Cesare Borgia, looking to expand his power by gobbling up Italian land in every direction. Power, as his faithful and ambitious lieutenant, is dispatched to soften up a city-state... but it s Power who ends up softening. The production is beautifully mounted by director Henry King, with location shooting that rivals the King-Power collaboration Captain from Castile, although color would have made the Borgia world a more vivid playpen.

Welles was concurrently making his version of Othello, and used jobs like Prince of Foxes to pay for his own movie. There s no denying that things slow badly whenever Welles isn t on screen, although Everett Sloane (a longtime Welles company actor) brings vinegar to his part as a hired assassin. Ty Power, who already looks older than his 35 years, is clearly beginning to wear down as a dashing adventure hero--but both he and Welles would return a year later in The Black Rose, a bouncier epic entirely. --Robert Horton