BLUEBEARD is an oddly beautiful film with beautiful sets, beautiful costumes, beautiful European women, and Richard Burton's beautifully blue beard. The film is a retelling of the "Bluebeard" story that takes place in an "almost" Nazi Germany. The Nazi uniforms are not really Nazi uniforms and the swastika is not really a swastika, but this helps add to the fantasy aspect of the film. The idea of watching a pseudo-erotic, black comedy about real Nazis would be a little tacky even for BLUEBEARD, which is abundant in tackiness.
The movie is about sex and sadism, but never goes far enough with either the sex or the sadism, even by 1972 standards. Baron Von Sepper (Richard Burton) attracts and is attracted to a series of beautiful women, whom he courts and then marries. Once married to the various objects of his obsession, the sticky part of consummating the marriage rears its ugly head (or fails to, more precisely). An Oedipus complex, a plane crash, and some kind of chemical reaction, that has turned Von Sepper's beard blue, have all combined to render the poor Baron impotent. To save himself from embarrassment, Von Sepper must kill off his wives once they discover his inability to perform. This is where the film is remarkably realistic with its examination of the lengths a man will go to hide that he is not a functional man.
I bought Richard Burton as the reserved Nazi baron who is incapable of accepting his shortcomings. He is funny in the scenes where he is trying not to have sex. The many failings of the movie are the fault of the director, Edward Dmytryk. From the incredibly slow pace to the un-dramatic use of flashback right after flashback, the film alternates between the boring and the beautiful. The director also annoys the viewer with an obvious correlation between the sadism of Nazi Germany and the sadism of Bluebeard. Anyone familiar with history knows that the Nazis were sadistic. No one needs this movie to try to drive that point home.
The movie is about sex and sadism, but never goes far enough with either the sex or the sadism, even by 1972 standards. Baron Von Sepper (Richard Burton) attracts and is attracted to a series of beautiful women, whom he courts and then marries. Once married to the various objects of his obsession, the sticky part of consummating the marriage rears its ugly head (or fails to, more precisely). An Oedipus complex, a plane crash, and some kind of chemical reaction, that has turned Von Sepper's beard blue, have all combined to render the poor Baron impotent. To save himself from embarrassment, Von Sepper must kill off his wives once they discover his inability to perform. This is where the film is remarkably realistic with its examination of the lengths a man will go to hide that he is not a functional man.
I bought Richard Burton as the reserved Nazi baron who is incapable of accepting his shortcomings. He is funny in the scenes where he is trying not to have sex. The many failings of the movie are the fault of the director, Edward Dmytryk. From the incredibly slow pace to the un-dramatic use of flashback right after flashback, the film alternates between the boring and the beautiful. The director also annoys the viewer with an obvious correlation between the sadism of Nazi Germany and the sadism of Bluebeard. Anyone familiar with history knows that the Nazis were sadistic. No one needs this movie to try to drive that point home.