Dangerous Exile (1957): Richard O'Sullivan and Vaughan Wilkins

The death of Richard O'Sullivan gives me an excuse to mention one of this blog's more obscure heroes, the mid 20th century historical novelist Vaughan Wilkins. Because, as a boy, O'Sullivan appeared in the only film to be made from one of Wilkins's novels.

Dangerous Exile, which was directed by Desmond Hurst and released in 1957, was based on the novel A King Reluctant. 

It tells the story of the escape of the young son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette from France to Wales and the attempts of the Revolutionary government to recapture him. The boy is played by Richard O'Sullivan.

I saw the film on BBC1 some decades ago, and don't recall it being particularly outstanding, but the adult cast is interesting: Louis Jourdan, Belinda Lee, Keith Michell, Martita Hunt and Finlay Currie. And I do remember a scene, carried over from the novel and containing the surprising nastiness of which Wilkins was capable, in which O'Sullivan is plied with brandy by his Revolutionary guards to make him assent to all sorts of obscene stories about his mother's sex life.

You didn't here it from me, but Dangerous Exile can be watched on more than one of the dodgy Russian website that carry old British films.