François Villon is the best known French poet of the Late Middle Ages. He was involved in criminal behavior and had multiple encounters with law enforcement authorities. Villon wrote about some of these experiences in his poems.
The Love Parade is a 1929 American pre-Code musical comedy film, directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald, involving the marital difficulties of Queen Louise of Sylvania (MacDonald) and her consort, Count Alfred Renard (Chevalier). Despite his love for Louise and his promise to be an obedient husband, Count Alfred finds his role as a figurehead unbearable. The supporting cast features Lupino Lane, Lillian Roth and Eugene Pallette.
Jeanette Anna MacDonald was an American soprano and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier and Nelson Eddy. During the 1930s and 1940s she starred in 29 feature films, four nominated for Best Picture Oscars, and recorded extensively, earning three gold records. She later appeared in opera, concerts, radio, and television. MacDonald was one of the most influential sopranos of the 20th century, introducing opera to film-going audiences and inspiring a generation of singers.
Charles Rudolf Friml was a Czech-born composer of operettas, musicals, songs and piano pieces, as well as a pianist. After musical training and a brief performing career in his native Prague, Friml moved to the United States, where he became a composer. His best-known works are Rose-Marie and The Vagabond King, each of which enjoyed success on Broadway and in London and were adapted for film.
Nelson Ackerman Eddy was an American actor and baritone singer who appeared in 19 musical films during the 1930s and 1940s, as well as in opera and on the concert stage, radio, television, and in nightclubs. A classically trained baritone, he is best remembered for the eight films in which he costarred with soprano Jeanette MacDonald. He was one of the first "crossover" stars, a superstar appealing both to shrieking bobby soxers and opera purists, and in his heyday, he was the highest paid singer in the world.
The New Moon is an operetta with music by Sigmund Romberg, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Oscar Hammerstein II, Frank Mandel, and Laurence Schwab. The show was the third in a string of Broadway hits for Romberg written in the style of Viennese operetta. Set in 1792, shortly before the French Revolution, the story centers on a young French aristocrat in disguise, who has fled his country and falls in love with the daughter of a prominent New Orleans planter.
Rose-Marie is an operetta-style musical with music by Rudolf Friml and Herbert Stothart, and book and lyrics by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II. The story is set in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and concerns Rose-Marie La Flemme, a French Canadian girl who loves miner Jim Kenyon. When Jim falls under suspicion for murder, her brother Emile plans for Rose-Marie to marry Edward Hawley, a city man.
If I Were King is a 1938 American biographical and historical film starring Ronald Colman as medieval poet François Villon, and featuring Basil Rathbone and Frances Dee. It is based on the 1901 play and novel, both of the same name, by Justin Huntly McCarthy, and was directed by Frank Lloyd, with a screenplay adaptation by Preston Sturges.
Dennis King was an English actor and singer.
The Vagabond King is a 1925 operetta by Rudolf Friml in four acts, with a book and lyrics by Brian Hooker and William H. Post, based upon Justin Huntly McCarthy's 1901 romantic novel and play If I Were King. The story is a fictionalized episode in the life of the 15th-century poet and thief François Villon, centering on his wooing of Katherine De Vaucelles, and relating how he becomes “king for a day” and defends France against the invading forces of the Duke of Burgundy.
"Rose Marie" is a popular song from the musical or operetta of the same name. The music was written by Rudolf Friml and Herbert Stothart, the lyrics by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II, In the original Broadway production in 1924, the song was performed by Dennis King and Arthur Deagon, as the characters Jim Kenyon and Sergeant Malone.
"Some Day" is a song, with music by Rudolf Friml and words by Brian Hooker, originally published in 1925. It was included in Friml's operetta The Vagabond King, sung by Carolyn Thomson in the role of Katherine de Vaucelles.
The Vagabond King is a 1956 American musical film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Kathryn Grayson, Rita Moreno, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Walter Hampden, Leslie Nielsen, and Maltese singer Oreste Kirkop in his only feature film role. It was produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is an adaptation of the 1925 operetta The Vagabond King by Rudolf Friml. Hampden plays King Louis XI. Mary Grant designed the film's costumes.
The Oubliette is a 1914 American silent historical drama film directed by Charles Giblyn, featuring Murdock MacQuarrie, Pauline Bush, and Lon Chaney. It is part one of a four-film series directed by Giblyn called The Adventures of François Villon. The Oubliette was written by Harry G. Stafford, based on a short story of the same name by George Bronson Howard published in The Century Magazine.
The Higher Law is a 1914 American silent drama film directed by Charles Giblyn and featuring Murdock MacQuarrie, Pauline Bush and Lon Chaney. It was written by Harry G. Stafford, based on a story by George Bronson Howard. This film was the second in a series of four films called The Adventures of Francois Villon. Lon Chaney was featured in this one, as well as in the first installment, The Oubliette (1914), but did not appear in the other two. The film is now considered to be lost. The film co-starred Millard K. Wilson, who became a lifelong friend of Chaney and later served as his director in films at M-G-M.
The Firefly is a 1937 American historical musical film directed by Robert Z. Leonard and starring Jeanette MacDonald, Allan Jones and Warren William. The film is an adaptation of the operetta of the same name by composer Rudolf Friml and librettist Otto A. Harbach that premiered on Broadway in 1912. The film used nearly all of the music from the operetta but jettisoned the plot in favor of a new storyline set in Spain during the time of the Emperor Napoleon I. It added a new song, "The Donkey Serenade", which became extremely popular, as was one of the Friml songs, "Giannina Mia". The original release prints of the film were elaborately tinted with Sepia-Blue, Sepia-Orange and Sepia-Blue-Pink.
Paramount on Parade is a 1930 all-star American pre-Code revue released by Paramount Pictures, directed by several directors including Edmund Goulding, Dorothy Arzner, Ernst Lubitsch, Rowland V. Lee, A. Edward Sutherland, Lothar Mendes, Otto Brower, Edwin H. Knopf, Frank Tuttle, and Victor Schertzinger—all supervised by the production supervisor, singer, actress, and songwriter Elsie Janis.
The Beloved Rogue is a 1927 American silent romantic adventure film, loosely based on the life of the 15th century French poet, François Villon. The film was directed by Alan Crosland for United Artists.
The Lottery Bride is a 1930 American Pre-Code musical film directed by Paul L. Stein and starring Jeanette MacDonald, John Garrick, ZaSu Pitts, and Joe E. Brown. The film was produced by Joseph M. Schenck and Arthur Hammerstein, based on the musical by Rudolf Friml, and released by United Artists. William Cameron Menzies is credited with the production design and special effects.
If I Were King is a 1920 American silent drama film produced by Fox Film Corporation, directed by J. Gordon Edwards, and starring William Farnum as François Villon with Fritz Leiber, Sr. and Betty Ross Clarke.
