Prince of Foxes

Prince of Foxes (1949)

King of Romantic Epics!

In 1500, Duke Cesare Borgia hopes to marry his sister to the heir apparent of Ferrara, which impedes his conquest of central Italy. On this delicate mission he sends Andrea Orsini, his sister's lover and nearly as unscrupulous as himself. En route, Orsini meets Camilla Verano, wife of the count of Citta' del Monte, and sentiment threatens to turn him against his deadly master, whom no one betrays twice...

Date of release
1949-11-11
TMDB
6.3 / 10 (28)
Runtime
1h 47m
Genres
Adventure, Drama, History
Director
Henry King

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 2

Prince of Foxes is a 1949 American historical adventure film adapted from Samuel Shellabarger's novel Prince of Foxes. The movie starred Tyrone Power as Orsini and Orson Welles as Cesare Borgia. It was nominated for two Oscars during the 22nd Academy Awards: Best Black and White Cinematography and Best Costume Design, Black and White.

Production

The novel was published in 1947. It became a best seller.

In February 1948 the film rights were bought by 20th Century Fox for a reported $200,000. They intended it to be a vehicle for Tyrone Power. It was thought the novel would involve censorship challenges because Pope Alexander VI was a major character.

Sol Siegel was assigned the job of producing, Henry King was to direct and Milton Krims to write the script. Censorship issues were resolved by removing the character of Alexander VI so the Borgias had no father. As long as the script didn't mention religion or the church, the Catholic Church indicated that they would not protest. King left for Italy in April 1948 and the others followed in June. Orson Welles signed in July.

Most of the scenes were shot on the exact locations in Italy and San Marino, with all the studio work done at Cinecittà Studios.

"It was worth every dollar it cost and it cost plenty", said Zanuck of location filming.

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

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