The Private Affairs of Bel Ami

The Private Affairs of Bel Ami (DVD) (*)

~~$23.99~~ $17.97

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Spanish ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Spanish ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Spain ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
107 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Black & White

Movie filmed in 1947 and produced in:
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Albert Lewin

Written By:
Albert Lewin

Actors:
George Sanders ..... Georges Duroy
Angela Lansbury ..... Clotilde
Ann Dvorak ..... Madeleine Forestier
John Carradine ..... Charles Forestier
Susan Douglas Rubes ..... Suzanne
Hugo Haas ..... Monsieur Walter
Warren William ..... Laroche-Mathieu
Frances Dee ..... Marie de Varenne
Albert Bassermann ..... Jacques Rival
Marie Wilson ..... Rachel
Katherine Emery ..... Madame Walter
Richard Fraser ..... Philippe de Cantel
John Good ..... Paul de Cazolles
David Bond ..... Norbert de Varenne
Leonard Mudie ..... Potin

Synopsis:

Writer/director Albert Lewin, ever on the lookout for esoteric story material that would accommodate his fascination with Egyptian sculpture and feline symbolism, managed to inject both into The Private Affairs of Bel Ami. Though based on a Guy de Maupassant story, Bel Ami seems to have been written by Oscar Wilde, another of Lewin's pets (e.g. The Picture of Dorian Gray). George Sanders plays an epigrammatic Parisian journalist, who rises to the top through the 'kindnesses' of the various influential women that he's seduced and abandoned. This 19th-century rake's progress is ultimately halted by a duel, and somehow we're sorry that we don't get to see Sanders pull off at least one more caddish trick to save himself. Echoes from Lewin's previous works include his insertion of a Technicolor sequence (as he'd done in Dorian Gray and The Moon and Sixpence). George Sanders' stepping-stone ladies include Angela Lansbury, Frances Dee, Ann Dvorak, Marie Wilson, Katherine Emery and Susan Douglas.

Writer Georges Duroy (George Sanders) is one social-climbing S.O.B. who does most of his climbing over the warm (and cold) bodies of women. He begins with Rachel (Marie Wilson), a hanger-on in the cafes and Folies Bergere crowd, and then moves on to dally with Clotilde de Morelle (Angela Lansbury.) Always striving to move upward on the social scale, he ditches her to marry Madeleine Forestier (Ann Dvorak). Now he gets on the fast track. He persuades Madame Walter (Katherine Emery), the wife of his publisher, to fall in love with him, and then compromises Madeleine to frame a divorce, so he can pursue Madame Walter's daughter, Suzanne (Susan Douglas, before somebody decided her later-married name was her most-often used screen name.) He moves along so well that ere long he is in legal position to usurp the title of one of France's most noble houses. The moral, at the end, is it is okay to mess with French women, but triffling with French titles is going too far.

The Private Affairs of Bel Ami is a 1947 American drama film which stars George Sanders as a ruthless cad who uses women to rise in Parisian society.

This product was added to our catalog on Friday 15 November, 2013.

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