The Man on the Rock (1938) User Reviews

An interesting 'what if' concept, but the execution left a bit to be desired...

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 11 January 2010]

This short film asked interesting questions. What if the man who died on St. Helena was NOT Napoleon? Could he have had his double live out this exile? Did Napoleon actually visit with his young son just before his own death? The case is convincingly put together in the film and it makes you think--especially since many historians have wondered the same thing. However, despite having very nice production values and an interesting idea, there is one major problem with the film. I assume that in order to speed things up there was a decision to have the narrator do all the talking in the film. It sure would have come off better had they let the characters themselves talk--making it more like a story than a hastily read script.

Overall, interesting but oddly executed. While very good, it sure could have been better.

What if

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 22 October 2022]

Napoleon Bonaparte dies on the island of St. Helena in 1821. This MGM questions if this is the real truth. During his reign, Francois Eugene Robeaud is a farmer who works as his double. This lays out the theory that Napoleon supporters manuever Robeaud in a switch.

This is a What if episode. The truth is not needed. It's fun. It's a side trip in history. It's a conspiracy theory that changes nothing. In that, the stakes are low and it's not mean-spirited. It gives a few pieces of 'evidence' to support its case. It's MGM presents An Historical Mystery. At most, it makes one question the history books.

Carey Wilson's Weird History

[boblipton · 6/10 · 22 October 2022]

Here's another of Carey Wilson's shorts in which he posits that the history books got it wrong. He tells us how Napoleon was not imprisoned on St. Helena and died there. Instead it was his double, a man hired for his resemblance to the French emperor.

And so? Did Wilson think that Napoleon did anything after his purported death? Did he retake control of France and lead it to conquer Europe, but somehow kept anyone from finding out?

There are many ways of looking at history, many different events to focus on, but Wilson was always on the lookout for something weird that had no effect. Nostradmus, the rightful king of France living in Wisconsin, it was all one to him.

Great Entertainment

[Michael_Elliott · 2 December 2008]

Man on the Rock, The (1938)

**** (out of 4)

Short from MGM's "Historical Mysteries" series, which takes a look at various conspiracy theories in the world of history. This one here deals with Napoleon and his double who would take his place during various aspects of his life. Public showings, speaking to men and various other reasons were used to where the double would take the place of Napoleon. The mystery (or conspiracy) happens two years after Napoleon's death when a man tries to see Napoleon II and is killed. His dying words is that he was Napoleon and years later a man backs up his story that the double originally died, which let Napoleon go around under a fake identity. I have no idea if this story is true but I must admit that I love this series from MGM. Next to their "Crime Does Not Pay", this was the best series the studio put out. Again, who knows if this story is true but if you enjoy conspiracy theory films then this one here has a great story and director Cahn handles all the action very well. The actors all handle their parts very well and Carey Wilson adds his typical good narration.

Did the Eagle leave his cage?

[theowinthrop · 28 September 2006]

There is a problem with some historical mysteries - they may have the flimsiest of evidence backing them up, but they are so outlandish that people will be willing to believe them. For instance, in 1825 Tsar Alexander I of Russia went on an extensive tour of his country into the Crimea and Caucasus. He and his Empress took ill at an obscure town on the Black Sea called Tagenrog, and first the Tsar and then his wife died. However, there was (and remains) a persistent story that Alexander secretly faked his death and practiced his Christian beliefs as a "holy man" named Fyodor Kuzmich, who died in 1864. Kuzmich was supposed to be under certain powerful protection to the day of his death, and he was supposedly able to get visits from members of the Royal Family. Did these really occur, and if so were they due to his reputation as a good and holy man, or were his relatives secretly visiting former Tsar Alexander? To add to this, a rumor exists that when the Bolsheviks examined Alexander I's tomb in 1919, it was empty. So this "urban legend" of the disappearing Tsar still surfaces.

In the HISTORICAL MYSTERIES series that MGM put out in the 1930s and 1940s they frequently turned to French history. We have seen episodes dealt with whether North Carolinian school teacher Peter Ney was really Marshal Michel Ney (supposedly executed for treason in 1815), and the fate of the unfortunate Louis XVII (did he become American clergyman Eleazar Wheeler?). There were three or four bloated shorts about Michel Nostradamus' predictions. I suppose that French history appealed to the writers of the series. It is colorful, and full of urban legends.

This current one is a recurring story, which a few years ago reappeared in a film with Ian Holm as Napoleon, returning from St. Helena (where a double replaces him). That film, which was actually a comedy, suggested that the unexpected death of the double, and Napoleon's discovery that his organizational skills were excellent for regular business expansion, enables the Little Corporal to find a happy third and final act as a prosperous merchant.

The legend is that Napoleon did not die on St. Helena. I read a version of it years ago in one of Frank Edward's books of odd (and frequently false) stories of the unusual and weird. This story was that Bonaparte had supporters who got a double to replace him on St. Helena, who died, and the Emperor got back to France. But he wanted to hook up with his son, known in France (and later due to a play by Edmond Rostand) as the "Eaglet", who briefly ruled as Napoleon II in 1815. The "Eaglet" was half Austrian from his mother Maria Louis. So he was brought up at the Schoenbrun Palace in Vienna with his grandparents (Emperor Francis II of Austria and his wife), under the watchful eye of Metternich. The Austrian Chancellor did not mistreat the little Prince (as Rostand made it seem in his play) but wanted to make sure no Bonapartist Party would upset the Bourbon Royal Family's restoration in France.

Supposedly, in 1823, the guards at the Schoenbrun one night shot an intruder on the grounds who appeared to try to see Napoleon II. This figure was familiar looking, and Metternich came to identify him...and (according to the urban legend) recognized it was the former Emperor. The story was quashed (except that it eventually became known in "urban legend" circles.

One has mixed feelings. It is actually more impressive for the legend of Napoleon Bonaparte that he was so feared by Metternich, Castlereigh, Talleyrand, Alexander I, and Wellington that he had to be exiled to a small island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. "The Eagle in the Cage" is a fitting conclusion for a great military/political career. The switched double who dies, while the Emperor dies two years later anonymously in Vienna, is rather anti-climatic, and slightly stupid. If Napoleon had gotten released by a switch with a double, doesn't it seem that he would have planned the kidnapping of his son to have him with him for a restoration attempt? Why risk his own neck to visit his son in the heart of his enemy's territory? But that is precisely what this particular urban legend is asking us to believe.

Unlike some other urban legends, I find this one somewhat insulting to a great historic figure. Napoleon was many things, some not so pleasant like a megalomaniac, but I did not think he was foolish and ridiculous. This particular story certainly makes him so.