CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Deedee For me, Tyrone Power hit his stride as a major actor in his post WWII years, though towards the end of his contract with 20th Century Fox, the material seemed to become quite thin. Fortunately, he redirected his career when he got control of it and was able to do the stage work he loved and to make several terrific films before his untimely death in 1958. In Prince of Foxes, I think his maturity is seen to fine advantage in the role of a world-weary agent of Cesare Borgia. The script, though flawed by several glaring inconsistencies, is literate and makes for an engrossing historical drama. Power is excellent and so is Everett Sloan, a fascinating actor who's great in a dynamic secondary role. He and Power are a fine pairing with a unique chemistry that makes me wish they had done other films together. I can only take Orson Wells in small doses. Here he's just allowed a short time on screen to knit his brows, wrinkle his nose and chew on the scenery, feathers, grapes, his fingers, etc. Prince of Foxes was filmed on location in glorious black and white with a very rich look that I wouldn't change for the world. I had the great good fortune to travel in Italy, including Venice and San Marino (aka Citta Del Monte in the film), about ten years after this was made. Somehow,the cinematographers magically captured the effects of Italy's light and air just as I remember them. The score is lovely and evocative and along with the perfect visuals I get a pang of nostalgia every time I watch it. Prince of Foxes is a favorite that I heartily recommend to lovers of Old Hollywood-style historical drama. The book it's based on is good, too.

whisper-24 Bless his heart, Tyrone Power was the cat's meow at one time, but his characters were so involved with being 'the romantic type' that they were left a bit flat. The REAL characters and great performances in this film are from Orson Welles and Everett Sloane! Incredible, indelible, and inimitable. We are introduced to a whole new side of both actors abilities. They have no trouble going over to the dark side of human nature when self-preservation and power are the ultimate goals. Go to the film immediately. Skip some of the swashbuckling; it isn't particularly inspired in my opinion, but do not miss the trebuchet and siege scenes. I must find out who set all these things up and who were the technical advisors. Delicious costuming. The film locations and sets are wonderful.

edwagreen This is historically beautiful? This is melodrama at its miserable-best.Tyrone Power stars in this awful picture about a man sent out to do the work for the evil Cesare Borgia, only to find love and turn on him. The script is quite weak here and some of the acting, particularly by Wanda Hendrix, as his true love, is churlish and almost laughable. Hendrix was horribly cast in this treacherous soap-opera like atmosphere.Everett Sloane goes from bad to evil and repeats the cycle in record time. He is the embodiment of evil with that look of his. Nevertheless, it is not exactly a memorable performance such as that of Bernstein in Welles'"Citizen Kane."Katina Paxinou, who had been supporting Oscared 6 years before for the memorable "For Whom the Bell Tolls," comes along for the ride as Power's hysterical ultra-religious mother. She definitely had a tendency to over-act which she displays here.Welles is his usual terrific self as the evil Borgia, but the script does him in. Also, the black and white cinematography creates a dull period atmosphere-like film. Color would have been somewhat of an enhancement with better writing coming along.

gerrythree From the VHS recording I made of Prince of Foxes on Cinemax 8 years ago (as I recall, part of their Summer series of movies not yet out on video), this movie looks as if it was shot in color. Those castle interior scenes are too dark and DP Leon Shamroy too accomplished a technician to film the movie in such subdued lighting. Somewhere in the Fox archives, there may be records to show if Prince of Foxes was originally intended to be a Technicolor release. The most likely reason 20th Century Fox released the movie in black and white is cost, after Zanuck decided that the potential box office of the movie did not justify the greater expense of making the release prints in Technicolor. Or, the reason could be that some of the filmed material turned out for technical shortcomings not to be able to be processed correctly for Technicolor by the film lab. The cost for retakes would have been prohibitive, since the movie was filmed on location in Italy. So, my opinion is that the studio took the cheap way out, processing a black and white negative from the Technicolor film negative, figuring the audience would not notice how the timing was way off.If there is still a surviving Technicolor negative of this movie in the Fox film archives stored in some cave somewhere, shot in the three strip Technicolor process, there is now computer technology available to correct any defects in the original negative.On another note, the director Henry King liked low angle shots as much, if not more, than director Michael Bay. This movie is loaded with low angle shots, sometimes to take advantage of the castle backgrounds, sometimes to show a person's bad situation, as when the bound Orsini looks up at Borgia at the dinner table. In 1949, Henry King had been a director for 30 years, and he picked up some good tricks along the way. Too bad 20th Century Fox didn't spring for a Technicolor release of Prince of Foxes.