Acting
Welles devouring scenery as Cagliostro with hypnotic intensity.
Costume
Lavish period excess that screams 1940s studio system.
Direction
Ratoff's shadow-drenched Gothic atmosphere over historical accuracy.
Director
Gregory Ratoff
Orson Welles
Joseph Balsamo aka Count Cagliostro
Nancy Guild
Marie Antoinette / Lorenza
Akim Tamiroff
Gitano
Frank Latimore
Gilbert de Rezel
Valentina Cortese
Zoraida
Margot Grahame
Mme. du Barry
Stephen Bekassy
Viscount de Montagne
Berry Kroeger
Alexandre Dumas, Sr.
Gregory Gaye
Chambord / Monk (as Gregory Gay)
Raymond Burr
Alexandre Dumas, Jr.
Charles Goldner
Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer
Robert Atkins
King Louis XV
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Welles allegedly directed several uncredited scenes when Ratoff fell ill, which explains the visual schizophrenia.
Based on Alexandre Dumas's Joseph Balsamo, this was part of a 1940s Hollywood obsession with Mesmer and hypnotism as quasi-supernatural plot devices.
US
