SpuffyWeb
Sadly Over-hyped
Exoticalot
People are voting emotionally.
AnhartLinkin
This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.
dougdoepke
A modern descendant of the Borgia's grapples with what he thinks are murderous family genes, which leads to a mysterious family scandal, a real murder, and a surprise ending.Oddball little movie, not quite a whodunit since the suspects are too under-developed to pick through. The result is more like an early noir with Cesare (Woods) struggling against dark forces and maybe fate, too. In fact, I'll bet the lighting bill didn't exceed 5 bucks. Also, I'm with the reviewer pointing out that Woods lacks the expressive depth to play the central character effectively. Too bad, because that would have made the movie more memorable. On the other hand, there's the craggy-faced Aubrey Smith as a commanding head doctor, and a most un- cop-like Robert Barrat as chief cop. And what about actress Eily Malyon whose close-ups are enough to scare off both Karloff and Lugosi.All in all, I'm not sure the movie knows where it wants to go. The threads do not blend well. Still, there are some creepy moments that manage to compensate. Then too there's that surprise ending where justice happily triumphs over law. Looks like the screenplay (1935) managed to sneak this by a newly installed Production Code (1934). Anyway, my guess is that when Barrat leaves the airport he's headed to the Playboy Club no matter what he's told the wife.
blanche-2
"The Florentine Dagger" is a Warner Brothers film from 1935 starring Donald Woods, Margaret Lindsay, Henry O'Neill, and C. Aubrey Smith. Woods plays a descendant of the Borgias who comes to Italy to see the Borgia castle. Apparently afraid that he has inherited the Borgia madness, he tries to kill himself with a potion, but the psychiatrist (Smith) tells him it's fake. He suggests that Woods write a play about the family and achieve some closure that way. O'Neill plays a producer who does the play in Vienna, with his daughter (Lindsay) as the lead. The play is a huge hit, and Woods and Lindsay fall for one another. When O'Neill is stabbed with a Florentine dagger, Woods becomes the main suspect.Very atmospheric for such a small film with some good performances, particularly by Robert Barrat as a police inspector who's quite funny. Lindsay is miscast as this mysterious, goddess-like woman whose performance is the talk of Vienna. A Greta Garbo role in the hands of Margaret Lindsay, a completely different type.A short film, fairly well done given the budget.
Michael_Elliott
Florentine Dagger, The (1935) ** (out of 4) Yet another murder/mystery with this time a young play-write (Donald Woods) stopping off in a small village where he meets a beautiful young woman (Margaret Lindsay) who he wants in his latest play. Soon the play is a hit and they want to be married but her father (Henry O'Neill) refuses permission but soon he's found dead with a dagger in his heart. That's pretty much the set-up to this thing but in the end I found the majority of the picture to be downright boring with very little going for it. I've always thought Florey did his best work outside this genre as it just seemed like he never could pull things together very well. I think the biggest problem with this film isn't his direction but instead it's the screenplay that doesn't offer up any decent characters and the weak story is just a major drag. I had a very hard time getting into the film early on simply because the characters were all underwritten and even worse is the fact that the movie itself doesn't really know what it wants to do. Yes, we eventually get the mystery but everything is pretty dry without any small laughs and the romance is pretty boring as well. Woods is usually a very reliable actor but even he seems very bored here as he goes from one scene to another without too much energy and seems to be lacking any type of passion. Lindsay is also pretty bland in his role but so is O'Neill as the soon-to-be-dead father and Robert Barrat does very little with the Inspector role. C. Aubrey Smith is good as the doctor who ends up staying close to Woods. Florey does add a couple nice touches including a rich atmosphere in the house as well as a few other scenes where the darkness does some justice but in the end this thing is just too flat for its own good.
Neil Doyle
This little programmer from Warner Bros. features a bunch of studio contract players, all trying to do their best to bring some life into an unlikely story about a man (DONALD WOODS) who thinks he's inherited a tendency to kill because he's from a long line of Borgias. Nevertheless, he's encouraged to write a play about Lucretia Borgia for the daughter of HENRY O'NEILL, played by MARGARET LINDSAY.When O'Neill becomes the victim of a stabbing, the plot thickens as Detective Von Brinkner (ROBERT BARRAT) goes about trying to solve the crime. But it's really C. AUBREY SMITH who does most of the snooping to uncover the reason behind O'Neill's vicious death.However, it's Barrat's lively performance as the playboy detective that gives a lift to the story and a bit of humor that's badly needed.It's really a B-film struggling to look like an A-film with some proper atmosphere and period settings, but the story is told in dull fashion and never quite becomes as fascinating as the film's imaginative title.
