NFR Project: 'The Prisoner of Zenda' (1937)

 

NFR Project: ‘The Prisoner of Zenda’

Dir: John Cromwell, W.S. Van Dyke

Scr: Wells Root, Donald Ogden Stewart, Ben Hecht, Sidney Howard

Pho: James Wong Howe, Bert Glennon

Ed: James E. Newcom, Hal C. Kern

Premiere: Sept. 2, 1937

101 min.

It’s one of the best Hollywood Golden Age films, a lavish adventure/romance that never fails to intrigue and entertain. From its absurd premise springs a very well-reasoned set of consequences, which keep our hero, his allies, and his enemies on their toes until the thrilling conclusion.

It was not a smooth shoot. The director mistrusted his actors. Multiple writers worked the script over, over and over again. There were reshoots. Bu the result is seamless.

The film is based on the 1894 novel by Anthony Hope. It is set in the mythical Austro-Hungarian country of Ruritania, where Englishman Rudolph Rassendyll (Ronald Colman) is engaged in a fishing expedition. He is happened upon by Colonel Zapt (C. Aubrey Smith) and Captain Fritz von Tarlenheim (David Niven), who remark at his resemblance to the soon-to-be-crowned King Rudolph (also Colman). Rudolph is a bit of an irresponsible ruler, with a definite problem with alcohol.

It turns out they are distant cousins, and that the king is to be crowned on the morrow. The cousins carouse – until it turns out the next morning that the king has been served drugged wine and cannot make his coronation. A desperate plot is hatched – could Rassendyll play the king for a day, just to get through the coronation? For if he does not, his evil brother, the prince “Black” Michael (Raymond Massey) will supplant him.

Rassendyll agrees, and makes his way through the ceremony, tutored by Zapt and Tarlenheim. There he meets his cousin Princess Flavia (Madeleine Carroll), who he is intended to marry. Naturally, Rassendyll immediately falls in love with her. She, used to the indifference of the real Rudolph, falls in love with the new one.

But wait! The king has been kidnapped, and what follows is a series of tense negotiations as each side tries to win out over the other. The villainous Rupert of Hentzau (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.), ally of Michael, taunts the new Rudolph, whose secret he knows. Finally, a scheme to rescue to king is planned – and the new Rudolph must risk his life to save the king’s.

It’s all high melodrama, with a soupcon of redeeming humor. The idea of being “king for a day” is certainly appealing to the imagination, and Colman plays a noble Everyman who’s selected by fate to impersonate a king. He’s everything you’d want in a hero -- dashing, witty, self-deprecating. Every actor is supremely well-chosen, so much so that their performances are the iconic interpretation of this story.

James Wong Howe’s shadowy cinematography is breathtaking; Lyle Wheeler’s settings are grandiose, dripping with decoration, stretching off into the vast distance. It feels like the story is taking place somewhere real, so convincing is the production design. There is a climatic swordfight that’s one of film history’s best; everyone does the Right Thing in a bittersweet ending.

This film highlights Hollywood’s virtues, its ability to mount a convincing fantasy and stock it with indelible characters. It’s a blueprint for commercial success.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Republic Steel strike riot newsreel footage.