Prisoner of Zenda, The (1937)
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Director: John Cromwell
Honors:
It’s a story that had already been produced many times on stage and on
screen before, and will see many new incarnations in the years to come, but
this version of The Prisoner of Zenda
stands as the finest adaptation of the tale with a virtuous mix of art direction,
acting, and filmic quality that makes the motion picture stand as one of the
best in the year 1937. The film would have a noteworthy ensemble of actors, as
well as problems producing the correct performances from them by director John
Cromwell, but the picture would ultimately be one of the very best examples of
Hollywood production for the year.
The Prisoner of Zenda is an
adventure/drama of a man who shares the likeness to a king must take the
monarch’s place in order to save the king’s life from the plots of the royal’s
evil brother. Ronald Colman plays the dual role of Rudolf Rassendyll, and
English gentleman, and Rudolf V, the soon to be crown king of a middle European
country, who share uncanny likenesses to each other. When the future king is
drugged and eventually kidnapped in attempts of the king’s brother Duke Michael
(Raymond Massey) to usurp the thrown Rudolf fills in for the missing monarch to
keep the royal power in the correct hands until he is rescued from the clutches
of Michael’s evil henchman Rupert (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.). Meanwhile Rudolf
begins to fall in love with the soon to be wife of the king, Flavia (Madeleine
Carroll), but ends the devastating romance as the two cannot be together due to
her royal obligation to the crown when the real king is rescued.
It’s a picture that seems to start off as a regular Hollywood A-picture
with fancy set dressing, European royalty, romance, and adventure, usual realms
of entertainment on the big screen from American studios of the period. However
cliché the story seems as a look-a-like takes the place of the king while
trying to save his life, the picture appears to draw you in with the love story
between the stand in and the future queen, who finds her perceived husband’s
new attitude to be refreshing and attractive. The films builds to a strong
finish, capped with a fencing duel between Rudolf and the ever more evil
Rupert. Within the walls of this feature lays many aspects of why people loved
to go to the movies with adventure, romance, suspense, and drama.
Ronald Colman starring in the dual role as both the tales hero and the
object of plot in the king provides a strong base for the film. Playing two characters
in a singular feature is not new to motion pictures, and despite the fact that
the only difference between the two characters physically at the opening of the
feature is that Rudolf had a small beard, Colman does provide a distinct
difference between the two individuals. His role as the king is one as a man
easily drawn to wine and a looser lipped drunkard, while his hero of Rudolf is
likable and very charming. It creates a person you would believe Flavia would
fall in love with as this new king is far more attentive to her feeling and
needs than the true monarch to be.
The king is not seen too much in the picture, but Colman does make the
two characters easy to discern between with the way he carries the two, giving
them a sense of being very much alike publically to the other unknowing people
in the film, but different in closer quarters. Director John Cromwell would aid
the illusion of the two parts played by the same actor with special visual
effects that aloud two Ronald Colman’s to talk and even shake hands with each
other while both of their faces are clearly seen on screen simultaneously. For
its time the effects were superb and would still be near seamless years later after
the release.
Crucial to the picture is the love story between Colman’s Rudolf and
Madeleine Carroll’s Flavia. Carroll had become well known for her roles in two
Alfred Hitchcock pictures in England, The
39 Steps and Secret Agent,
setting the tone for blonde women in his films for coming years. Since coming
to America she was on the rise in cinema. Her charm and royal beauty makes you
believe she is a princess on her way to be queen and is in fact falling in love
with the Rudolf that poses as her future husband and king. If we do not believe
she can is falling in love with Rudolf, while having despised the man we only
had a glimpse of in the earlier parts of the picture whom Rudolf is taking the
place of, the film would not work. This makes her performance very important and
a success as you genuinely believe in her romance.
Despite the sinister character of Michael, played by Raymond Massey, is
the source of the plot, making audiences instantly know he is a scheming man,
it is Douglas Fairbanks Jr’s Rupert that becomes the real villain of the film.
The son of the famous silent star ends up taking over control of his scenes,
making him who was usually seen as an actor in heroic parts fill in well as a major
villain, a turn in his style of characters. Fairbanks initially wanted the role
of Rudolf, and with Colman winning the part and in receiving the chance to play
Rupert Fairbanks was initially hesitant. With encouragement from his father to
expand his acting dimensions and words from supporting actor C. Aubrey Smith
that Rupert is a role played well for many actors in stage adaptations the
Junior Fairbanks took the character and played it rather well, including the
fencing climax.
Selznick International would produce a fine array of supporting actors,
especially considering it was an independent studio. David Niven and C. Aubrey
Smith give the film an English dignity that usually came with Hollywood films
about European countries. The film also lands the skills of Mary Astor, the
former silent film teen star from the WAMPAS Baby Star days, but was more
recently known for her heavily press covered custody battle she had been
fighting through with her recently divorced husband. Her work in The Prisoner of Zenda and other pictures
in 1937 marked a resurgence for Astor in Hollywood.
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| The fencing climax had to be reshot with with uncredited director W.S. Van Dyke |
It was director John Cromwell’s duty to wrangle up the actors for this
picture, which apparently was not an easy task. Despite a beautiful final work
that came out of production Cromwell had many difficulties with his actors that
plagued him and his production of the film. Along with the beautiful shots and
cinematography, legend has it that Cromwell did not get along with Colman, who never
seemed to know his lines. Cromwell would complain about Fairbanks and
supporting actor David Niven spending their evenings out and report to stage
tired and “lazy.” The production would be so frustrating for Cromwell that on
certain days George Cukor would be brought in to direct. When the fencing scene
of the picture proved to lack energy W.S. Van Dyke would reshoot the entire
sequence, producing a better action scene, which included the use of watching
fencing shadows, making the duel more cinematic. Even with all these issues
that hindered the production the final picture still proves to be very well
assembled, and a popular film at the box office for the smaller, yet quality
based Selznick International Pictures.
To push the film was a strong publicity department added prestige to
the film. There would be several premieres to the picture in many cities, none
more over the top than then that of New York City. For that particular premiere
twelve residents of Zenda, Ontario, Canada were flown in as a gimmick to
promote the name of the picture.
The film would become and financial and critical success. The
production quality would be noted in at the Academy Awards with nominations for
best art direction and best film score. This marked the first nomination for
composer Alfred Newman for the Oscar, and despite not winning he would receive
another 44 nominations in his career for his future works.
The story shared in The Prisoner
of Zenda would be a popular one shared in many adaptations. The popular
play base on the novel would begin in 1895, with a cast that included C. Aubrey
Smith who played a supporting role in this 1937 feature film. There were three
silent films produced based on the novel, and after the 1937 feature a number
of more adaptations for stage, screen, both domestic and international cinema,
as well as television versions of the tale. Above them all the 1937 version of
the story stands as the perennial adaptation for the screen, even gaining the
honor of listed on the National Film Registry in 1991 preserving the picture in
the Library of Congress.
Homages to the story and this film in particular would be paid
throughout the years and can be seen as rather so commonplace that contemporary
audiences would not know its source material. Nonetheless The Prisoner of Zenda remains a fine example of Hollywood
productions in the late 1930s, especially with a strong British laden cast as
the nearing a foreign conflict approached in Europe for Great Britain. No one
knew it then, but things would change soon with the coming of World War II, and
here was one of the final times in Hollywood’s Golden Age would audiences see
this large of a British cast. Selznick would continue to produce periodic, high
quality pictures as successes followed this successful feature film.
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