A "woman's picture" if there ever was one, "The Swan" is an elegant, well-appointed costume comedy, but also quite sluggish, stagey (it IS based on a stage play), and rather lifeless. Grace Kelly, right after her sparkling work in Alfred Hitchcock's "To Catch A Thief", gives one of her blander performances here: she remains an expert at projecting cold fire, but only gets to cut loose in a couple of fencing-training scenes. However, the film does get an extra half-star from me (for a total of **1/2 out of 4) because its seemingly totally predictable path does lead to a surprisingly bitter and cynical ending.