The Beloved Rogue

John Barrymore sought to out swash buckle Douglas Fairbanks in his breathless depiction of France's rapscallion poet, thief and vagabond: Francois Villon (1431-1463). to prove his mettle, he bounds over the snowy rooftops of Paris, scales a castle tower, and is hurled skyward by the royal catapult - but this is no mere stunt picture. Barrymore wielded a simmering sexuality that Fairbanks lacked, endowing the film with an element of eroticism that perfectly suits Villon, who loved "France earnestly, Frenchwomen excessively, French wine exclusively."