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King Rudolf V, of the small Balkan country of
Ruritania, meets his exact double, Major Rudolf Rassendyll, an English cousin of
his who is on holiday, the night before his coronation. The king then
takes his cousin to his lodge, where they toast their shared ancestors.
The dissolute king unknowingly drinks wine that has been drugged by his
villainous half brother "Black Michael," Duke of Streslau and Lord of Zenda
Castle, who wants the throne.
The next day, Rudolf poses as the king while the
real monarch lies unconscious in the lodge cellar. The coronation is a
success, but Rudolf unwittingly falls in love with the king's intended, Princess
Flavia who, upon finding him a reformed man, loves him for the first time.
Colonel Zapt, determined to make the real king an honorable man, returns to the
lodge and finds Josef, a loyal servant, dead and the king missing.
Rupert of Hentzau, a courtier, is seemingly in
league with Michael, but is really after the king's mistress, Lady Antoinette.
As part of Michael's scheme to murder Rudolf and bury him as the king, Rupert
blackmails Rudolf into meeting him alone, demanding ransom money for the king's
return. Rudolf goes to Antoinette's room at the castle and she offers to
help him if the king's men let Michael live. She then gives Rudolf an
earring and tells him to watch for a messenger bearing its match, and he
escapes.
Michael and Rupert then have the king moved to Zenda
Castle, where they keep him in chains. After Rupert tries to bribe Rudolf
into keeping the kingdom for the two of them, Michael tries to force the king to
write an abdication, but he refuses. Antoinette's messenger arrives with
plans for Rudolf to swim across the moat to Antoinette's room that night.
Because the king will be killed at first alarm, Rudolf must fight the guards and
rescue the king before the drawbridge is lowered for Colonel Zapt's approaching
army. The plan works until Rupert, seeing Antoinette's door open, enters
and kisses her. When Michael walks in on them, he and Rupert fight and
Rupert stabs him. Antoinette then confesses her scheme to save the king
and Rupert kills the messenger as he tries to lower the drawbridge.
Rudolf then kills the guards who are about to kill
the king and, following a sword fight with Rupert, slices the drawbridge rope.
When the troops storm the castle, Rupert dives into the moat. The king
lives and is now kind-hearted and sober. Crediting Rudolf with teaching
him how to be a ruler, the king wants to exonerate his cousin, but Zapt insists
on keeping the double identity a secret to all but Flavia. When she and
Rudolf meet again, they swear their love and she nearly gives up the throne to
be with him but, with the words "honor binds a woman, too" chooses to forfeit
her love for Rudolf and become Ruritania's queen.
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