The Prisoner of Zenda (1937 and 1952 Versions)
by John Cromwell, Richard Thorpe, W.S. Van Dyke
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Actor: C. Aubrey Smith, Madeleine Carroll, Mary Astor, Raymond Massey, Ronald ColmanDirector: John Cromwell, Richard Thorpe, W.S. Van Dyke
Brand: Warner Brothers
Writer: Anthony Hope
Writer: Ben Hecht
Writer: Donald Ogden Stewart
Writer: Edward E. Rose
Writer: John L. Balderston
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: Academy Ratio, 1.33:1
Running Time: 201 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-03-06
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: 79508
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- Two versions of Anthony Hope's THE PRISONER OF ZENDA are brought to the screen here. The version from 1952 stars Stewart Granger and Deborah Kerr, while the 1937 adaptation features Ronald Colman in a dual role as dead ringers Rudolph Rassendyll, a commoner, and Rudolf V, the crown prince of Ruritania. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR Age: 012569795082 UPC:&n
DVD Reviews of The Prisoner of Zenda (1937 and 1952 Versions)
DVD Review: Take your choice: Ronald Colman in 1937 is a classic; James Mason in 1952 is great fun
Summary: 4 Stars
The Prisoner of Zenda may be romantic nonsense, but it's great romantic nonsense...the 1937 version, that is. The 1952 version, a nearly word-for-word, scene-for-scene remake, comes across as a pint of professionally made but still weak beer. The difference lies in the performances.
The story is all about honor and duty, with a great dollop of noble love added to the mix. In a small middle European country, the king, Rudolph (Ronald Colman/Stewary Granger), is to be crowned, and then he will marry the Princess Flavia (Madeleine Carroll/Deborah Kerr). But Rudolf is a hard-drinking wastrel, the despair of Colonel Zapt (C. Aubrey Smith/Louis Calhern), an elderly, upright military man who served Rudolf's father and is determined to serve the crown no matter how lacking in substance the son is. But Rudolf has a half-brother, Prince Michael (Raymond Massey/Robert Douglas), who is determined to take the throne. His henchman is the thoroughly unprincipled, charming and murderous Rupert of Hentzau (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr./James Mason). Into this seething royal mix arrives Rudolf Rassendyll (also Ronald Colman/Stewart Granger) from England, looking for a spot of good fishing. Due to a liaison years and years ago, it turns out that Rudolph and the king are remote cousins...and are as alike as identical twins. Rudolf and the king, accompanied by Zapt and a young aide, meet by chance near the king's hunting lodge. Before long the king has been drugged and abducted, Rudolph has agreed to Zapt's pleas to impersonate the king for the coronation so as to foil Black Michael's and Rupert's schemes. "Englishman," Zapt says to Rassendyll, "I'm much older than you. As a man grows old he begins to believe in fate. Fate sent you here!" Ah, but then Rudolph meets Flavia and they fall in love. Rudolph must choose whether or not to save the king, who is now imprisoned in Rupert's castle. If he saves the king, he will lose Flavia. All this is going on amidst coronation balls, inside sumptuous palaces and moat-ringed castles, outside stone chalets, in dank dungeons, on galloping horses and with pistols, swords and knives in hand.
Ronald Colman's urbanity and solid projection of a man of honor forms the keystone to the 1937 movie. Colman was a major leading man in the silents of the late Twenties. With his inimitable, cultured voice layered on to a strong, natural screen presence, he became one of the great stars of the Thirties and well into the Forties. He promised a kind of natural, non-competitive camaraderie to men. To women, he seemed to promise nights of romantic passion but without too much emphasis on love's mechanics. Although he makes a dashing sword fighter, he was not the athlete that Stewart Granger was. Granger, however, lacks most of the natural nobility that Colman brings. In diction and line reading alone, Colman outclasses Granger.
The 1937 version also is blessed with an outstanding performance by Aubrey Smith as Colonel Zapt. Smith specialized in craggy aging Englishmen, driven by duty and often irascible toward the young puppies he had to deal with. He's just that here, an old man determined to do his duty and to see that others do, too.
And for a villain, Black Michael may be driven by envy and jealousy, but it is Rupert of Hentzau who seems to be driven by the sheer delight of being reprehensible. "I don't like women who lie to me," he says to Prince Michael's lover. "They don't usually do, as a matter of fact." Then he smiles. "I usually lie to them." Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. tackles the role with great panache; he's very good. Unfortunately, he has to compete with the performance of James Mason in the 1952 remake. It is Mason's performance that makes the 1952 version so rewarding to watch. Mason could slide more irony and amused contempt into his reading of a line than just about any other actor. His delighted and subtle satisfaction with his own murderous betrayals make him impossible to dislike. Pity the actors, particularly Stewart Granger, who had to share scenes with him.
And what are we left with? Who could say it better than the king himself. "You couldn't have served me better, cousin," he tells Rudolf with simple sincerity toward the end of the film. "You taught me how to be a king."
Both movies are on flip sides of the same DVD disk. The 1937 version is in black and white. It's a good transfer. The 1952 version is in color and looks fine. Both sides have one or two inconsequential extras.
Description of The Prisoner of Zenda (1937 and 1952 Versions)
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