The Swan is a magnificently beautiful film in every way--sets, costumes, dancing and music, dialogue, and the actors. Of course Grace Kelly is noted for her blonde regal beauty. Louis Jourdan is the most gorgeous man to ever grace film. The two together, Grace and Louis, are almost too much to watch. They are stunning together.Their characters, Princess Alexandra and Dr. Nicholas Agi, are just as lovely to watch. From the beginning, Dr. Agi's love for the Princess is clearly evident, and as her attraction to him develops, the audience hopes for the romance to culminate in a romantic Royal Wedding. Alas, that does not happen. Alexandra cannot bring herself to follow her heart and to succumb to love for Nicholas. Instead, after the most enchanting waltz, he realizes the truth and prepares to depart the palace the following morning. Does she merely pity him, as he claims, or does she love him but reject him because he is a tutor and not of royal birth? Or is it that Nicholas is Alexandra's first romance and she realizes it will never last? For whatever reason, Nicholas rides out of her life, leaving her heartbroken yet awaiting future happiness.It takes Alexandra's uncle, the Father Carl Hyacinth (Brian Aherne), to provide the insights and truths that guide Alexandra into letting Nicholas go. Carl realizes his niece's inexperienced youth, and assures her that true love will find her in due course. Of course, we are left at the end to wonder of that comes in the form of the (forced) marriage to her cousin Prince Albert (Alec Guinness). We must each answer that question for ourselves.

I can't give it the "awful" rating because it's beautiful filmed and all the acting is splendid. It's a gorgeous film, and it is simply awful. The woman has had no life of her own, she's been ruled by her mother, done what her mother demanded, and never let herself feel. Finally, the situation between the tutor and the Prince she is supposed to marry, becomes explosive and in that explosion she realizes her true feelings -- more than that: she realizes she HAS feelings. And of course she's a princess and she's going to marry the Prince, it doesn't matter who she loves. But that happens in Roman Holiday and the princess is going to feel it and love the man involved for the rest of her life. The ending of this film with Alec Guinness saying she's the swan gliding through life, having no feelings and he's the same, playing their roles. Oh god, it's horrible. How can anyone call that romantic???? It's a total denial of life.

Interesting to note that The Swan's screenplay writer/adapter, John Dighton, also co-wrote the screenplay for "Roman Holiday", since one can logically assume that MGM's decision to film Molnar's play "The Swan" was inspired by the success of the earlier film; the similarities are obvious."Swan" must be regarded as one of the great DIALOGUE films of the '50's; the exchanges between all of the characters are continually witty and engaging, and the cast clearly relished the opportunity to perform such beautifully written material. The direction is fine and, except for a few slow patches, keeps the action and dialogue moving at a rapid clip. The performances are uniformly solid, with Alec Guiness in top form as the bemused, distracted and somewhat shallow Crown Prince Alexander; a more deft and perfectly controlled performance could not be imagined.Jessie Royce Landis also excels in a typically thankless sort of role, and a major one at that. In fact, the expert performances are clearly the result of the high level of STAGE experience of Guiness, Landis, and Brian Aherne (as the aristocrat-turned-monk Karl), among others. You almost feel that you are watching Molnar's original play in a filmed version, so fascinating is the chamber-like, character-driven nature of the dialogue and action.The scene near the end where Alec Guiness convinces his mad-cap Queen/mother (Agnes Moorehead) to unknowingly give her blessing to the romance between Grace Kelly and Louis Jordan is but one of the many delightful, dazzlingly-delivered dialogue scenes.Oddly, I found Grace Kelly's much-heralded performance to lack a certain amount of intensity; her screen presence rarely seems particularly commanding; this may be due to the essentially reticent nature of her character. However, she definitely seemed to "catch fire"--in all of her understated, regal beauty---during her lengthy waltz scene with Louis Jordan. One really senses the awakening of her deepest emotions, even though she only occasionally glances at her partner. And then goofy Alec Guiness decides to go play the double-bass in the court orchestra instead of romancing Grace. I laughed out loud.My reaction at the end of the film was rather unexpected, given what I knew of the "Roman Holiday-style" ending. In that film, I was heart- broken during Gregory Peck's long, lonely final walk. But here---due entirely to the very real, conflicted nature of all three principal characters, I felt that Grace Kelly's choice may have been, in fact, the better one. It's difficult to know, human nature being a rather complex thing. And therein lies much of the brilliance of this film.Bronislau Kaper's score is also delightful, and beautifully captures the musical idiom of the era and its locale, the "swan song" as it were of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, whose faded glory would become extinct less than a decade later.A FILM THAT SHOULD BE FAR BETTER KNOWN AND ACCLAIMED THAN IT IS.LR

More than Charles Boyer,Louis Jourdan was par excellence the French lover;he was so handsome that pairing him with supreme beauty Grace Kelly was only natural;Alec Guiness seems out of place next to this dream couple.It should be noted that Jourdan was never big in his native country where he made some interesting movies ("Premier Rendez-Vous" )but no memorable masterpiece :he was probably too handsome for his own good.Whereas France was asking for plebeian heroes (Jean Gabin) he was some kind of aristocratic person.But not in "the swan": he is a proletarian ,an educated proletarian (they always call him "the teacher" ,"the professor" and the princess learns his first name halfway through the movie) but a man of common birth . Which makes "the swan" a fairy tale in reverse : everyone knows his place (scene of the kiss) ,even the romantic gorgeous lady becomes sensible and reneges on her love."When a swan leaves his lake,he becomes gauche" ."A Star dragged down into the mud" .The aristocrats (particularly the ladies and even the clergy) are hard on the others.The story takes place at the beginning of the last century at a time a princess could not marry a peasant ;and today ,if they do not marry a noble ,they make sure he's got plenty of dough ;ditto for the princes.The movie became prophetic :Grace Kelly was so credible as a princess she became one in real life.Strong supporting cast :Jessica Royce Landis (who was also Kelly's mother in "to catch a thief"),Estelle Winwood and Agnes Moorehead .