The Exile

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.'s second stint as a movie producer--and his first as a writer--was an ambitious attempt to dramatize the tale of the restoration of Charles II to the throne of England. An avowed Anglophile, Fairbanks had a strong sense of the history of his adoptive land. (He was born in New York City.) Unfortunately, the drama and excitement of the pursuit of Charles Stuart (Fairbanks) after his return from self-imposed exile in Holland by Oliver Cromwell's Puritans is dampened by the producer-author-star's insistence on a walking pace for the story. Much of the film is concerned with Fairbanks' trysting with the luscious Croset--later Paula Corday--in her ...