Henri de la Falaise
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| Henri de la Falaise | |
|---|---|
| Born | Henri Marquis de la Falaise de Coudray February 11, 1898 |
| Died | April 10, 1972 |
| Spouse(s) | Gloria Swanson (1925-1931) Constance Bennett (1931-1940) |
Henri le Bailly, Marquis de La Coudraye de La Falaise (Saint-Cyr-l'École, France, February 11, 1898 - April 10, 1972) was a French nobleman, translator, film director, film producer, sometimes actor and war hero who was best known for his high-profile marriages to two leading Hollywood actresses.
Notably handsome and universally known as "Hank," the marquis was admiringly described by the actress Lillian Gish as "a real war hero. In his bathing-suit he presents a graphic picture of what modern warfare does to a man — he is so cut-and-shot and covered with scars."
La Falaise directed at least five motion pictures, among them two exotic productions about primitive life and customs: Kliou The Killer (1934, released 1936, also known as Kliou the Killer Tiger) and Legong: Dance of the Virgins (1933, released 1937, also known as Djanger: Love Rite of Bali).
He is probably better known, however, for being the third of film star Gloria Swanson's six husbands. They married on January 28, 1925, after meeting on the set of the Swanson film Madame Sans-Gêne, on which La Falaise was working as a translator. They were officially divorced in November 1931, at which time Swanson was several months pregnant by Michael Farmer, an Irish sportsman who would become her fourth husband. (Thinking her divorce from La Falaise was already finalized, the actress had married Farmer in August, which was technically bigamy, and was forced to remarry him, legally, in November.) Swanson did conceive a child with La Falaise but had an abortion; it was an action she regretted, according to her autobiography, Swanson on Swanson.
In November 1931, days after his divorce from Swanson was finalized, La Falaise married film actress Constance Bennett and with her founded Bennett Productions, a film company for which he directedLegong: Dance of the Virgin (the silent movie was the first color movie filmed in Bali) and Kliou the Killer (filmed in present-day Vietnam and the last film produced in two-tone Technicolor). Both were reviewed with praise by American newspapers and have attracted the attention of film scholars in recent years for their authentic depiction of tribal life, narrative drama, and understated style. La Falaise also produced and directed three films for RKO, which were filmed in French and English versions: Echec au roi (Royal Be), Le fils d'autre (The Woman Between), and Nuit d'Espagne (Transgression). The couple divorced in 1940.
The marquis married, as his third wife, Emmita Rodriguez de Roeder, a Brazilian socialite. He had no children by any of his marriages.
The Marquis de La Falaise was awarded the Croix de Guerre for heroism during World War I and received another for bravery during World War II, while he was attached to the British 12th Royal Lancers. In 1943, he published "Through Hell to Dunkirk," a memoir of his war experiences.
He may also have written a film script for Gloria Swanson called Paris Luck, a 1927 work that bore the name of Robert Bailly.
