Napoleon and France

Plot

Filmed in Europe, Napoleon and France was released in the U.S. by the entrepreneurial George Kleine. The producers took on the daunting task of distilling the life and times of "The Little Corporal" into a six-reel running time, and (according to contemporary reviewers) for the most part they did not succeed. Most of the scenes were presented in stage-tableau fashion, with lengthy subtitles "explaining" what is supposed to be going on. Much of the film is given over to a decades-long political rivalry between Napoleon and one Marshall Lavirve, ending inevitably in Lavirve's death by firing squad. A bit too ambitious for its own good, Napoleon and France faltered in the battle scenes, where no more than 200 extras were used at any one time (the film cried out for the directorial expertise of a D.W. Griffith, who could have made those 200 look like 20,000). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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