Bardelys the Magnificent
1926 film directed by King Vidor
Bardelys the Magnificent is a 1926 American silent romantic film directed by King Vidor and starring John Gilbert and Eleanor Boardman. The film is based on the 1906 novel of the same title by Rafael Sabatini. It was the second film of the 19-year-old John Wayne, who had a minor role.
The film's sets were designed by the art director James Basevi.
Plot
The film is set in the reign of King Louis XIII. When Comte Châtellerault fails to win the hand in marriage of Roxalanne de Lavedan, despite hinting at leniency for her rebellious family if she accepts, he responds to the notorious womanizer Marquis de Bardelys' mockery by wagering his estate against that of Bardelys that Bardelys cannot succeed in marrying Roxalanne either within three months. While Bardelys does not desire marriage, he feels he has to accept the challenge. However the king, on hearing of the wager, forbids Bardelys from seeking a marriage alliance with a rebel family.
Bardelys ignores the king’s orders as he feels that his honour is at stake. On the way to the Lavedan estate, he stumbles upon a fatally wounded man, Lesperon, who asks him to say farewell to his beloved but dies before telling him her name. Bardelys takes his papers and, when challenged by a party of the king’s soldiers, assumes Lesperon’s identity to conceal his own, only to find that Lesperon is a wanted traitor.
The public source identifies “Bardelys the Magnificent” as 1926 film directed by King Vidor. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Bardelys, Magnificent and film.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q786394. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1926 and 1906.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bardelys the Magnificent” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.