Monsieur Beaucaire is a frantic, screwballish version of Booth Tarkington’s costume novel of high adventure in the days of silk-stockinged heroes. As such it has plenty of giggles and a few solidly-premised laughs.
With the script handed him, George Marshall’s direction measures up. He knows his way around a broadly aimed gag or situation, and proves it by milking each to its limit. Therein lies a fault of Beaucaire. Many sequences that could have played out on their own merits are unnecessarily embellished and eventually detract from the basically amusing yarn about a court barber forced to impersonate royalty.
Bob Hope plays the French barber, Beaucaire, with all stops out, waltzes through trying situations and varied romances with a bravado that is his particular forte. It’s all fun, but could have been even more so if treated with a bit less broadness.
