Reign of Terror

Reign of Terror (1949)

Open or shut… it can cost your life!

The French Revolution, 1794. The Marquis de Lafayette asks Charles D'Aubigny to infiltrate the Jacobin Party to overthrow Maximilian Robespierre, who, after gaining supreme power and establishing a reign of terror ruled by death, now intends to become the dictator of France.

Date of release
1949-10-15
TMDB
6.8 / 10 (54)
Runtime
1h 27m
Genres
Drama, Thriller, History
Director
Anthony Mann

Casting

Interesting facts

Reign of Terror is a 1949 American historical thriller film directed by Anthony Mann from a screenplay by Aeneas MacKenzie and Philip Yordan, and starring Robert Cummings, Richard Basehart, and Arlene Dahl. Set during the French Revolution, the film follows a plot to bring down Maximilien Robespierre and end his bloodthirsty Reign of Terror.

Production

In August 1948, Wanger signed a deal with Cummings to star in the film. To get him, the movie became a co-production with Cummings' own company, United Californian. Arlene Dahl was borrowed from MGM.

Producer Walter Wanger, director Anthony Mann, cinematographer John Alton, and production designer William Cameron Menzies used their combined talents to make a low-budget "epic" using Broadway stars and shooting on sets only costing $40,000.

It was the first collaboration between Mann and Philip Yordan, who said the original script by Aeneas MacKenzie was "nothing but speeches, Robespierre and all this." He told Mann, "you can't follow the script unless you're a student of the French Revolution", so he suggested the story be simplified to be about Cummings tracking down a book containing the names of anti-Revolutionaries before Robespierre could get it.

Filming started August 23, 1948, and ended in early October 1948 .

Mann said it was only through William Menzies' "ability that we were able to achieve any style, feeling or period" under the limited budget.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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