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The Prisoner of Zenda
The most thrilling swordfight ever filmed...
A kingdom's ascending heir, marked for assassination, switches identities with a lookalike, who takes his place at the coronation. When the real king is kidnapped, his followers try to find him, while the stand-in falls in love with the king's intended bride, the beautiful Princess Flavia.
- Original title
- The Prisoner of Zenda
- Language
- EN
- Country
- US
- Budget
- $1,250,000
- Revenue
- $5,000,000
CinemaSerf
Jun 20, 2022 · via TMDB
Ronald Colman probably wishes he'd chosen another fishing venue as his "Maj. Rassendyll" arrives in the tiny kingdom of Ruritania just as it's king is about to be crowned. He might have suspected something when his border greeting seemed a bit formal, but a wander in the woods puts him face to face with the King - his doppelgänger if ever there was one. He is invited back to the hunting lodge for a glass or two and next thing he is rudely woken in the morning by the king's aide "Zapt" (Sir C. Aubrey Smith) and informed that the wine was drugged and nothing is going to wake the king anytime soon. Unless they are to allow his evil half-brother "Michael" (Raymond Massey) to ascend in his place then "Rudolph" is going to have to be a body double for the ceremony. With nerves wracking, he manages to get through the day but then they discover that the real king has now been kidnapped by his sibling and his own ruthless henchman "Rupert of Henzau" (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) and the race is on to extricate the prisoner of Zenda and restore him to his throne. Just to add to the complications, the imposter is expected to court his soon-to-be bride the "Princess Flavia" (Madeleine Carroll) who has previously had little but disdain for her regal cousin. Once they've met, she doesn't have quite the same indifferent feelings about his stunt-double, nor he her, so with a bit of unwanted romance creeping into the plot poor old "Zapt" and his sidekick "Von Tarlenheim" (David Niven) have to walk quite a tightrope as they try to sort out this mess. Colman is on good form here as the honourable soldier and the rakish king and Fairbanks works well too as the devious baddie adept at the swordplay and some entertaining acrobatics. The last ten minutes concludes this enjoyable adventure quite excitingly with a bit of mischief and a deadly trap door... Great fun.
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
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Ronald Colman
Major Rudolf Rassendyll / The Prisoner of Zenda
Madeleine Carroll
Princess Flavia
Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Rupert of Hentzau
Mary Astor
Antoinette de Mauban
C. Aubrey Smith
Colonel Zapt
David Niven
Captain Fritz von Tarlenheim
Raymond Massey
Black Michael
Montagu Love
Detchard
Philip Sleeman
Albert von Lauengram
Torben Meyer
Max the Butler
Wilhelm von Brincken
Krafstein (uncredited)
Ben Webster
Lord Topham (uncredited)
Byron Foulger
Johann (uncredited)
Charles K. French
Bishop (uncredited)
Bert Glennon
Director of Photography
James Wong Howe
Director of Photography
Donald Ogden Stewart
Additional Dialogue
George Cukor
Co-Director
W.S. Van Dyke
Co-Director
John Cromwell
Director
David O. Selznick
Producer
Hugo Friedhofer
Orchestrator
Alfred Newman
Original Music Composer
Donald Ogden Stewart
Dialogue
Anthony Hope
Novel
John L. Balderston
Screenplay
Ben Hecht
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