'Whip Duel' - inspired by 'Song of Scheherazade'

 In his blurb for the Royale Studio, photo storyette, 'Whip Duel', Basil Clavering compares the dramatic quality of his imagery with the Whip Fight scene in "Scherezade". This is a reference to the 1947 film 'Song of Scheherazade' starring Yvonne de Carlo and Brian Donlevy. It's a romanticised fantasy about a young Rimsky-Korsakoff being inspired to write his well-known musical suite whilst on a visit to Morocco when he was serving in the Russian Navy.

This contemporary poster includes an image of the whip fight (top right) between the young Rimsky-Korsakov and one of his shipmates over the honour of 'Cara', whom he wants to take back to Russia with him. The scene featured heavily in the official publicity stills and posters at the time (some of which are reproduced below) but for some reason, current synopses of the plot don't even mention it. I had to look up the film itself to find out more about it.

The scene starts with Rimsky-Kosakoff (right) trying to negotiate a way of smuggling his girlfriend aboard the ship to take her back home with him. His shipmate refuses to play ball and in the argument that follows he insults her, calling her a 'pick-up'. I think the whip he's holding (there's another one somewhere!) is connected with the mandatory 'ballet sequence' (see below).

Having got themselves thoroughly worked up, the protagonists prepare for the fight by standing nose to nose and taking it in turns to progressively discard trappings such as caps and sword belts, which they dramatically fling aside. This procedure is not without erotic overtones of course. Sadly though they don't get as far discarding any interesting clothes, not even their shirts, although bare chested fights weren't uncommon in movies of this era. 

Clavering may have been moved to emulate this introductory, confrontation scene in his storyette, the sailor's cap can certainly be seen lying on the floor in one picture, but I haven't found any pictures that explicitly confirm the existence of  such a sequence.  

If you want to see beef in this film you have to wait for the fantasy entertainment scene, which shows Yvonne de Carlo impassively seducing a sexy sultan, just a Scheherazade does in the 'Tales of the 1001 Arabian Nights'. The unsavoury sexual context and institutional, honour killing that underpins the story is usually glossed over in books for kids of course, but it finds a disturbing, modern echo in the 'honour' row that fuels the sailors' whip fight in this film.

The only other beef on the menu is Brian Donlevy who plays the Captain of the ship. Apparently he was told by the director to shave his chest for the bare top scene. That's an interesting exercise of power that is not without erotic interest in itself, particularly when the man ordered to shave has such a macho image. His incongruous, unshaved arms seen here - a protest perhaps - highlight what a fool he has been obliged to make of himself.

Donlevy looks much better with his clothes on, but the film's portrayal of the Captain is a weird mix of butch, sophisticated (an avid chess enthusiast) and plain camp (cigarette holder and frilly bed hangings - not to mention the hand on hip pose!). No wonder his crew are given to extravagant romantic gestures.

The whip fight itself is a spirited affair, recognisably Hollywood in style with wholesale destruction of the surroundings. It's dramatic nevertheless and reasonably convincing with a couple of blows seeming to land realistically. There's a still on the internet that shows Jean Pierre Aumont (who plays Rimsky-Korsakoff, right) being taught how to handle a whip for the film.

At one point Rimsky-Korsakoff is knocked to the ground by a blow and is unable to defend himself against some ruthless blows. Clavering's interest in corporal punishment is evident in much of the Royale Studio's output and documented in the biography of John Barrington (source ref 101), so it's easy to see how he might have got excited about this imagery. 

Unlike Royale's storyette, no clothes get torn by whip lashes in the movie, but a wall hanging does. That little detail might have helped to inspire Clavering although it's not clear whether he actually saw the film. His storyette description suggests he took his inspiration from stills published in the 'Picture Post' (probably those shown here). His job as a cinema manager would lead you to think he must have viewed such a notorious scene at the time it first appeared, but in 1959, 10 years later, it would have been next to impossible for him to view it again unless it popped up on TV and even then, in the absence of video recorders, he would have been obliged to rely on those magazine clippings and his memory to compose his visuals for 'Whip Duel'.

This poster was dedicated to a less explicit crop of the 'grounded' image. Clearly the film's publicists also saw the scene as a useful bit of sensationalism which they could exploit. The film was a success at the box office but a critical failure. 

Read about Royale Studios 'Whip Duel'