Prince of Foxes (1949)

My Review

“Prince of Foxes” is a medieval adventure film about Italian nobleman Andrea Orsini (Tyrone Power) and his work for Prince Cesare Borgia (Orson Welles) in his attempts to keep political and military power in Italy. Director Henry King (“Jesse James” 1939) put together a top-rate motion picture which is both an historic adventure story and a swashbuckler film. The screenplay was written by Milton Krims, adapted from the 1947 novel of the same name by Samuel Shellabarger.

The cast has interesting chemistry including Tyrone Power, Orson Welles, Wanda Hendrix, Marina Berti, Everett Sloan, Felix Aylmer, Katina Paxinou, Eduardo Ciannelli, and Leslie Bradley. “Prince of Foxes” was a box office bomb for producer Sol C. Siegel and 20th Century Fox. It was filmed almost entirely in Italy, except for some studio work at Fox Studios in Los Angeles. This film with a 107 minute running time received two Oscar nods for Best Cinematography/Black-and-White (Leon Shamroy) and Best Costume Design.