1937
Starring:
Ronald Colman as Major Rudolf Rassendyll and King Rudolf V
Madeleine Carroll as Princess Flavia
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as Rupert of Hentzau
Raymond Massey as Duke Michael
Lesser roles:
C. Aubrey Smith as Colonel Zapt
David Niven as Captain Fritz von Tarlenheim
Mary Astor as Antoinette de Mauban
Length: about 100 minutes
Major Rudolf Rassendyll is vacationing in 'Ruritania' (a fictional country in Europe), when he meets the soon-to-be king, Rudolf the Fifth while fishing. They find that they are distantly related, which explains their strikingly similar appearances.
Rudolf the Fifth invites Major Rudolf back to his hunting lodge, where they drink, drink, and are merry for some time on into the night. Rudolf the Fifth [this is hard, writing about two people with the same name!] tells the Major about how he rather dreads the coronation on the following day. He's sure his (evil) stepbrother, Michael, is going to do his best to keep Rudolf from being crowned King of Ruritania. They drink and drink, until Rudolf (the Major), Captain Fritz von Tarlenheim and Colonel Zapt, the King's guards, finally fall asleep. Rudolf the Fifth takes one last drink from a new bottle, then drops to the floor.
The next morning--Coronation Day--Major Rudolf is rudely awakened by a pitcher of water in the face. Captain von Tarlenheim and Colonel Zapt have found the king lying on the floor and are sure Michael is behind all this....which, of course, he is.
So what do they do? The man who is to be crowned that day has been drugged, who knows when he'll wake up. If Rudolf the Fifth doesn't arrive, Duke Michael will find a way to crown himself king.
Hmmm. I wonder....
I enjoyed this movie. It has good acting and the plot is easy to follow, most of the time, except when the Rudolfs get mixed up. No mushy love scenes. A lot of action and sword fighting, a few deaths (nothing gruesome).
TCM: This movie is for sale on TCM.com, but you have to buy it either with the 1952 version here, $16.99, or with The Three Musketeers (1948), Captain Horatio Hornblower, The Prisoner of Zenda (1952), and Madame Bovary (1949) right HERE, for $50.99.
Netflix: available HERE.
Ebay: you can buy the double-sided DVD with both the 1937 and the 1952 versions on it for between $10.99 and $17.75. There are also the same two movies on laserdisc for $21.21 to $40.00.
Amazon: Once again, there are the two versions being sold together for from $8.78 to $39.99, or the same five-DVD set offered by TCM.
Aparently you can't get one movie without the other. I have not seen the 1952 movie, and so can not recommend it to you at all.
Happy movie watching!
~Kiwifruit
