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Dorothy Gish's screen vehicles for British director Herbert Wilcox were usually a treat, but her 1927 film Madame Pompadour tended to be weighed down by the ponderous stylistic choices of its producer, Germany's E. A. DuPont. Not surprisingly, Gish plays the title character, the celebrated 18th-century aristocrat-paramour whose clothing and hairstyles determined French fashions for decades. A favorite of King Louis XV (Henri Bosc), Mme. Pompadour has trouble limiting her ardor to any one man, and in this film she falls in love with handsome political prisoner Rene Laval (Antonio Moreno). Adapted by DuPont and Frances Marion from the stage play by Rudolf Schanzer and Ernst Wellisch, Madame Pompadour was an especially lavish and handsome production. Unfortunately, despite its brief 75-minute running time, the film moved at a snail's pace.