While I love the books of Thomas Costain (who wrote the original story),I was surprised how lukewarm I felt about this movie. Plus, combining that with such actors as Tyrone Power, Orson Welles and Jack Hawkins, I really expected to love this film. And, this could be some of the reason I scored this movie so low. Perhaps someone who never read the novel or wasn't a Tyrone Power fan would forgive its slow pace, occasionally sappy dialog and less-than-inspiring plot. All I know is that I really needed to push myself to stay focused on the movie. In fact, I tried watching this film a couple times before I finally sat through it.

My main reasons for seeing 'The Black Rose' were my love for classic film, my high appreciation for historical adventures and romances and a more than capable cast that included the likes of Tyrone Power, Orson Welles, Finlay Currie and Jack Hawkins. Although viewers seem to be divided when it comes to critical opinion, 'The Black Rose' did sound like it could be enjoyable if done right when taking the above into account.

'The Black Rose' though turned out to be one strange film and not an easy one to rate. Not an awful film and just about made watchable by some assets done well, but it is a rose that never really blossoms, a romance that never properly ignites and an adventure that never properly blazes. So generally was left a bit cold by 'The Black Rose' as much as it pains me to say it, being someone who wanted to like it considering that it was hardly one of those doomed from the start sort of films.

It is the production values that particularly make 'The Black Rose' watchable. It is a gorgeous film to look at, particularly noteworthy is being lavishly photographed with colour that is both vibrant and atmospheric. The production design is handsomely evocative and the costumes likewise, found it interesting finding out that two wardrobe men had to help Welles into his fur coat because it was so heavy. Richard Adinsell's music score rouses, sweeps and haunts, complementing more than competently.

Power is too old for his role but throws himself into it gamely and is hardly charisma void, he is also earnest without being overly so. The best performance overall came from Hawkins, an immensely likeable presence as the most interesting character and the one with the most humanity. He and Power work really well together. Couldn't help though being entertained by Welles, it is a bizarre role and played with a lot of ham yet Welles really looks as though he was enjoying himself while not being too out of kilter and it was a lot of fun to watch and livened things up quite a bit. Currie and Michael Rennie give good supporting performances.

However, most of the dialogue ranges from very bad to painful in a script that is far too heavy on the talk and was in serious need of a tightning up. It also fails to bring any depth or development to a vast majority of the characters, excepting Hawkins. Cecile Aubry gives for me one of the blandest and most increasingly irritating love interest performances seen by me in quite some time and her complete lack of chemistry with Power makes the romantic element fall flat.

Not that the rest of the storytelling is much better. Aside from a very rushed and incomplete-feeling ending, the pace never comes to life. With too little action/adventure elements, and what there is is as unexciting as can be, the film does feel very dull and structurally it is pretty uninvolving as well. Henry Hathaway's direction is not incompetent but is rather undistinguished and uninspired.

In summary, a strange film that didn't really work for me. 5/10

Tyrone Power stars in "The Black Rose," a 1950 adventure film also starring Jack Hawkins, Orson Welles, Cecile Aubrey, and Michael Rennie. Power plays Walter of Gurney, an Oxford scholar who hates the ruling Normans, takes off for Cathay with his friend Tris (Jack Hawkins). They wind up traveling with General Bayan (Orson Welles) and hiding a young girl, Maryam, known as The Black Rose.

The film is based on Thomas Costain's novel, and thanks to Tyrone Power, I became a fan of Costain's and read many of his books as a teenager. Very romantic, they'll get you through puberty. I seem to remember a lot of hotter encounters between Walter and Maryam, though the film does contain some romance.

"The Black Rose" was made at a time when 20th Century Fox and all of the other Hollywood studios were going through major changes since the government had broken the alliance between the studios and theater chains. Even with their problems, there is no expense spared on "The Black Rose." It is a sumptuous production, done on location and in color, with a top cast even in the minor roles: Herbert Lom, Laurence Harvey, Robert Blake, and famously, the voice of Peter Sellers dubbing the role of Bedoya.

The acting is uniformly good. Orson Welles played Bayan to fund one of his film projects. Normally he phones these performances in, using his formidable technique to get him through - he probably did the same here; sometimes it's hard to tell. He's excellent and underplays, being smooth in his role rather than barbaric, and he and Power have good screen chemistry. Off the screen, the two went back to the early '30s in New York when both were cast in a tour of Romeo and Juliet - this tour is captured in a roman a clef, "Quicksilver" by Fitzroy Davis. During the filming of "The Black Rose", director Hathaway needed some time away from Welles and, after being harassed by him in the company dining room, had a table set up in another room for himself, his wife, Tyrone Power and Linda Christian, so they could eat in peace. Welles became convinced they were getting special food and showed up. "We don't want special food," Hathaway informed him. "We want quiet." But Welles got his own table in this area, and the Powers and the Hathaways headed back to the main dining area.

Jack Hawkins is immensely likable as Tris. Cecile Aubrey, who would abandon her career and become a very accomplished screenwriter in France, is the gamine here. Some may find her a little too young-looking and a little too bubbly, but she is quite lovely as the childlike Maryam. Actually, she reminded me a little of Power's first wife, the French actress Annabella. Power is excellent as the adventurous Walter. One thing interesting about Power is that he never asked for scripts to be changed to reflect his age, and 20th Century Fox gave him scripts during this period that called for him to play characters anywhere from 10 to 15 years younger than he was, which in this movie is 36. It doesn't detract here; it's more obvious in "Rawhide," when he's supposed to be a green kid, and in "The Sun Also Rises." During their long working relationship, Zanuck apparently never thought of Power as anything but the young man he first hired in 1935. Walter is the kind or role the actor was sick of playing; he would shortly begin doing more stage work and form his own production company.

This is a sweeping adventure that many boomers will recall from "Saturday Night at the Movies" - like Power's swashbucklers, it's one of the previous generation's Saturday afternoon at the movies type films that young people remember fondly. I certainly do and am grateful for all the historical fiction I read as a result. Thankfully, this and other heretofore unreleased Power films will soon be available in a DVD collection.