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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.
Notes
The film is based on the novel The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
(London, May 1894) and play The Prisoner of Zenda by Edward E. Rose
(London, January 7, 1896).
The title card for this film reads: "Selznick
International presents Ronald Colman in a picturization of the celebrated novel
by Anthony Hope...." The foreword to the film states that any resemblance of the
story to the royal scandal of Europe at the end of the last century is
unintended. According to news items in HR in May-July 1933, MGM had
planned to make a musical version of The Prisoner of Zenda starring
Jeanette MacDonald and
Nelson Eddy, with Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart writing the music, Herbert
Fields writing the screen treatment, and Wells Root and Leo Birinski
collaborating on the screenplay.
_NRFPT_01_small.jpg) Although
Root wrote the adaptation for the Selznick version, it is unclear whether he
actually wrote a screenplay for the unproduced MGM musical, or whether any of
his earlier work was used in this film. An HR news item dated May
11, 1935 stated that Ernest Vajda was working on a screenplay for the film for
Irving Thalberg at MGM. On August 12, 1935, HR reported that Gerard
Fairlie had joined Marian Ainslee, who was already working on the script. By 4
Sep 1935, according to HR , the project was postponed. A 23 Dec 1935 HR news
item stated that Coningsby Dawson had been assigned by MGM to work with Jules
Furthman on the screenplay for The Prisoner of Zenda. The proposed
MGM production was to have been supervised by Al Lewin for Thalberg and was to
have starred
William Powell and
Myrna Loy, but was never made.
According to HR,
Madeleine Carroll was borrowed from Walter Wanger Productions. Arthur
Byron and Margaret Tallichet are listed in the cast in an early HR
production chart for this film; however, their participation in the released
film has not been determined. An HR production chart for day twelve
lists Bert Glennon as photographer, although he is not credited on the film.
According to a modern source, The Prisoner of
Zenda was part of David O. Selznick's expanded program of ten-to-twelve
"class A" features to be made in 1937 with a combined budget of $12,000,000.
Initially slated only as an "original for
Ronald Colman," the title of this film was kept secret until negotiations
with MGM for story rights had been completed. Modern sources also note
that Selznick had wanted to make this film while he was at MGM and had several
scripts prepared, but production never got underway. According to modern
sources, Selznick negotiated with Frank Borzage to direct, but Jack Warner of
Warner Bros. refused to loan him. Following the publicity surrounding the
abdication of King Edward VIII in Dec 1936, Selznick decided to capitalize on
the topical idea of a morganatic union, but had not wished to purchase the
rights to the story until he had secured Colman in the lead.
Modern sources indicate that this film's shooting
began with the scene in which Colman appears to shake hands with himself.
Cinematographer James Wong Howe created the scene by placing a 3 X 4 foot
optical glass three feet in front of the camera. Colman shook hands with a
double, whose head and shoulders were subsequently matted out with masking tape
on the glass. The scene was photographed and the film was run backward so
that the scene could be re-photographed with everything matted out except
Colman's head and shoulders. The NYT reviewer remarked that the
trick photography was so convincing he was sure a double had been used. He
further stated that his only complaint about the film was that there also should
have been two
Madeleine Carrolls.
According to a news item in HR on May 27,
1937, Selznick had scheduled additional scenes to be directed by George Cukor
because John Cromwell was tied up with pre-production on
The Adventures of Marco Polo. In a letter to
Ronald Colman on July 21, 1937, reproduced in a modern source, Selznick
explained his decision to have Cukor direct the renunciation scene featuring
Carroll because he was adept at directing women. The scene had been
rewritten that afternoon by Sidney Howard, Cukor and Selznick (reportedly during
a break in their meetings on
Gone
with the Wind). In excerpts from a speech Selznick gave on November 1,
1937 to a class at Columbia University also reproduced in a modern source,
Selznick states that after the film was finished and the fencing scenes were
re-cut, Selznick, still dissatisfied, brought in W.S. Van Dyke from MGM to
re-stage the fencing sequences already shot by Cromwell.
According to DV, Selznick publicity chief,
Russell J. Birdwell, staged a "bury-the-hatchet" stunt in the forecourt of
Grauman's Chinese Theatre for the Hollywood premiere of this film. The
stunt was a result of controversy over Culver City's desire to change its name
to Hollywood. Representatives from the respective Chambers of Commerce
literally buried in cement a hatchet donated by Birdwell to mark the end of
their dispute. California governor Frank Merriam refereed the ceremony.
Birdwell's publicity stunts also included him flying, along with twelve
residents, into New York for the world premiere from the town of Zenda, Ontario,
Canada, which was named after Hope's mythical kingdom. Birdwell also had
Los Angeles Mayor Frank L. Shaw inaugurate a downtown fencing tournament to
publicize the film. According to her 1948 article in SEP, "Flavia"
was
Madeleine Carroll's favorite role. In the article, Carroll recalls
being addressed as "Princess Flavia" by a wounded soldier while on a hospital
train in France during the Battle of the Bulge. Art director Lyle Wheeler
and score composer Alfred Newman were nominated for Academy Awards for their
work on the film.
Among the many film versions of Hope's story is the
1913 Famous Players Film Co. picture directed by Edwin S. Porter and starring
James K. Hackett and Beatrice Beckley; and a 1922 MGM silent directed by Rex
Ingram and starring Lewis Stone, Stuart Holmes and
Alice Terry. In 1952, MGM remade Selznick's version in Technicolor
with Richard Thorpe as the director and
Stewart Granger,
Deborah Kerr, and
James Mason in the cast. MGM's 1952 film used Alfred Newman's score
and, according to a modern source, was a frame-by-frame copy of the Selnick
version. In 1979, Richard Quine directed a comedic version of the story
for Universal starring Peter Sellers and his wife, Lynne Frederick.
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