Question: Build a movie plot around this: Who was returns and rebukes his marshals for letting Ney attack without infantry support? General Marshall
Answer:
The film opens on Chateau de Fontainebleau in 1814. Paris is besieged by the Austrians and her allies. Napoleon Bonaparte (Steiger) is urged by his marshals to abdicate but he refuses, defiant. Upon hearing the surrender of his last army under Auguste Marmont he realises that finally all is lost and accepts the abdication pleas of his marshallate. He is banished to Elba, an island in the Mediterranean with a small army of 1,000. Ney (O'Herlihy) calls it an honourable exile.After a tearful farewell to the Old Guard, he is carted away. 10 months later he escapes from Elba and sails back to France. Michel Ney, now under the allegiance of the restored Bourbon king (Welles) is asked to capture him at Grenoble. Ney agrees, eager to earn the respect of the court, who just the day before insulted his "low birth" wife by addressing her as "Madame" despite her title. He declares he'll bring Napoleon back to Paris "in an iron cage", which Louis XVIII says to himself is an exaggerated expression and an overreaction, typical for a militarist.The two men meet on the road from Grenoble. Napoleon, sensing the mood of Ney's troops, goes forward unarmed and asks them if they really want to fire at him.Instead they greet him with cries of "Vive l'Empereur!". Ney is instantly swayed and marches with him and his former soldiers. They return to Paris to a warm welcome by the people. King Louis has fled and the Hundred Days has begun.Napoleon appoints Louis' former Minister of War, Marshal Soult Chief of Staff and he corresponds to the families of the deceased during the war and plans a campaign for the defence of France. He realises he will be attacked but genuinely offers peace to his enemies, who, once more, ignore his communiques and declare war.Prussia and the United Kingdom's forces manoeuvre to counter Napoleon's expected thrust. The armies are not well coordinated and separate, much to the joy of Napoleon, who prepares to place his army between them and defeat one followed by the other.Attention is now drawn to Wellington...