13 thoughts on “More of This Charming Man – Revisting Beau Brummell

  1. I have a question about the shirt Beau Brummell puts on in the opening segment. It looks like it is completely open down the front, but every example I’ve seen of similar period shirts shows a neck opening and slit partway down the front (with or without ruffles). So, where does this open shirt come from or is it just a way to show him getting dressed without messing up his hair>

    1. I believe it’s very late in the 19th c. / early 20th c. that the fully open-front shirt became standard for British men, so yep, that’s a just a thing for the movie! I haven’t read his full bio so unless he had his specially made & it didn’t catch on, I can’t be sure.

  2. A couple of weeks ago, Turner Classic Movies had a 1954 biopic ‘Beau Brummell’ with Stewart Granger and Elizabeth Taylor. The costumes were OK to what in the world? It had an unhistoric happy ending (Prinny and Brummell reconciled). Another note – Fanny Brawne, John Keats ‘dearest girl’, was Brummell’s niece. I did not see the 1954 version to the end (I couldn’t take anymore) nor have I seen the 2006 version. I do want to know if either film featured the ringing line ‘Alvanley, who’s your fat friend?’

  3. Not a movie, but I recommend Obsolete Oddity’s YouTube video on Beau Brummel. He has a great speaking voice, and he was respectful rather than lurid when discussing the less fortunate parts of Brummel’s life.

  4. It’s kind of hard not to find something a bit homoerotic between the Prince and Brummell, even if there’s no evidence of any actual homosexual activity between them (and the Prince was so hated by the press, if there HAD been any suspicions about something like that the cartoonists would have made fun of it with at least as much venom as they hit him for his girlfriends.) “The Cut of the Clothes” by Erato is a book that has another take on their relationship.

  5. The first video raised a number of questions. “Mr. Beau Brummell for the Prince.” Really? Would it not be “Mr. George Brummell?” “Beau” was a soubriquet, used only informally, surely. And would not one of the servants have taken his hat and top coat long before he entered the royal presence? And, for that matter, in the scene in which Brummell was dressing, where was his valet? How on earth could he have shrugged himself into his well-fitting coat?

  6. The first Scene and all those cliches made me feel completely mad. Great actors in a really strange film, which could be so much better with good detail.

    To make a film about regency high Fashion with no idea about it, is still a strange thing.

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