The Exile

The Exile (1947)

King of Adventure! Queen of Romance!

In 17th-century England, Charles II, the rightful heir to the kingdom, is driven from his country by militants working for rogue leader Oliver Cromwell. Charles ends up in the Netherlands, where he falls for local beauty Katie and spends his days happily in the quiet countryside. Unfortunately, Cromwell's associate Col. Ingram and his men track Charles down, and the would-be monarch must resort to swashbuckling his way to freedom.

Date of release
1947-10-17
TMDB
6.3 / 10 (9)
Runtime
1h 35m
Genres
Adventure, Romance
Director
Max Ophüls

Casting

Interesting facts

The Exile is a 1947 American historical adventure romantic film directed by Max Ophüls, and produced, written by, and starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr. French actress Rita Corday played the romantic interest. According to Robert Osborne, the primary host of Turner Classic Movies, María Montez had a stipulation in her contract that she had to have top billing in any film in which she appeared, so her name comes first in the opening credits, despite her secondary role. The film is based on the 1926 novel His Majesty, the King: A Romantic Love Chase of the Seventeenth Century by Cosmo Hamilton.

Production

In January 1941, it was announced Fairbanks had bought the screen rights to a novel and would appear in a film based it, which he would make with Hal Roach. Fairbanks, Jr., a well-known Anglophile, sought to make the film as a tribute to his father Douglas Fairbanks, a star of swashbuckler films of the silent period.

Plans to make it were interrupted by Fairbanks' service in World War II. In January 1946 he announced he would star in and produce a film version called The Exile as part of a three-picture deal between International Pictures and Fairbanks' production company, the Fairbanks Company, which he had formed with Clarence Erickson.

In July 1946 Robert Coote signed to play a support role. In November 1946, Clemence Dane was reportedly doing work on the script.

"When people ask me if I'm following in my father's footsteps, I tell them his footsteps were so light they didn't leave a trace", said Fairbanks. "The proof of it is that his pictures were so carefully tailored to him that no remakes by others have ever been entirely successful. Still I find myself drifting back to the kind of roles he played – by public demand, as it were...

This was Ophüls' first film in Hollywood, after he was fired from his initial project, Vendetta, due to disagreements with producer Howard Hughes. Ophüls was recommended to Fairbanks by Robert Siodmak, the well-known director at the time of The Killers. Fairbanks signed Ophus in December 1946. "He needed the money desperately to get back to Europe and was a most interesting director", said Fairbanks.

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