The Prisoner of Zenda
The
protagonist is the Hon. Rudolf Rassendyll, younger brother of the Earl of Burlesdon and (through an ancestor's indiscretion) a distant cousin of Rudolf V, the soon-to-be King of
Ruritania (a fictional Germanic kingdom situated between the German and Austrian Empires). King Rudolf is a hard-drinking, feckless playboy, unpopular with the common people, but supported by the aristocracy, the Church, the army, and the wealthier classes in general. His political rival is his younger half-brother, Michael, Duke and Governor of Strelsau, the capital city. Michael has no legal claim to the throne because he is the son of their father's second,
morganatic marriage: there are hints, regarding his swarthy appearance and Rassendyll's use of the word 'mongrel' to taunt him, that he may be part-
Jewish. He is regarded as the champion of Strelsau's impoverished working-class, and is also popular in the countryside. (The morality of the novel - that propping up a dissolute despot is a 'good thing' - is disconcerting. It is possible that the author, something of an
ironist, is playing with his readers, or perhaps wishes us to see Rassendyll as a not-entirely reliable narrator.)
When Michael has Rudolf abducted and imprisoned in the castle in the small town of Zenda, Rassendyll has to impersonate the future King at his coronation. There are various complications, plots and counter-plots, among them the schemes of Michael's mistress Antoinette de Mauban, and his villainous henchman
Rupert of Hentzau, and Rassendyll falling in love with Princess Flavia, the King's betrothed. The King is finally restored to the throne - but the lovers must part.
The novel has been adapted many times for film and television, the best-known screen version being the 1937 film.
1937 film
The
black-and-white classic adaptation starred
Ronald Colman (Rassendyll and King Rudolph),
Madeleine Carroll (Princess Flavia),
Raymond Massey (Duke Michael),
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (Rupert),
Mary Astor,
C. Aubrey Smith and
David Niven.
The movie was adapted by
Wells Root,
John L. Balderston,
Donald Ogden Stewart (additional dialogue)
Ben Hecht (uncredited) and
Sidney Howard (uncredited) from the novel and the adapted play by
Edward E. Rose. It was directed by
John Cromwell.
Woody Van Dyke re-shot the
fencing scenes.
The script's basis in the 1895 stage version is readily apparent: there is little attempt to open up the story. The emphasis is very much on
romance and
adventure, rather than on the political thriller aspects of the story.
It was nominated for
Academy Awards for
Best Art Direction and
Best Music, Score. The score was composed by
Alfred Newman. The rousing music was used for the
sneak preview of
Gone With The Wind in
1939.
Taglines:
The most thrilling swordfight ever filmed...
*Romance and adventure to thrill you!
Trivia
*The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States
Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the
National Film Registry.
*Co-stars Raymond Massey and David Niven died on the same day:
July 29,
1983*Director John Cromwell was unhappy with his male leads, as he suspected that Colman didn't know his lines, and was concerned with Fairbanks' and Niven's late nights on the town.
*C. Aubrey Smith, who plays Colonel Sapt, played Michael in the original production of the
1895 stage play on which this film's screenplay is based.
*The television series
Northern Exposure featured an episode in which a character re-dubs the film into
Tlingit, a native American language.
*Author
Salman Rushdie cites
Zenda in his epigraph to
Haroun and the Sea of Stories, the novel he wrote while hiding incognito in the late 1980s after the the fatwa was decreed against him.
Other adaptations
The Prisoner of Zenda has been filmed several other times:
*1913 - Starring
James K. Hackett,
Beatrice Beckley,
David Torrence,
Fraser Coalter,
William R. Randall and
Walter Hale. Adapted by
Hugh Ford and directed by Ford and
Edwin S. Porter, it was produced by
Adolph Zukor and was the first production of the
Famous Players Film Company.
*1915 - Starring
Henry Ainley,
Gerald Ames,
George Bellamy,
Marie Anita Bozzi,
Jane Gail,
Arthur Holmes-Gore,
Charles Rock and
Norman Yates. It was adapted by
W. Courtney Rowden and directed by
George Loane Tucker*1922 - Starring
Ramon Novarro,
Lewis Stone,
Alice Terry,
Robert Edeson,
Stuart Holmes,
Malcolm McGregor and
Barbara La Marr. It was adapted by
Mary O'Hara and directed by
Rex Ingram.
*1952 - Starring
Stewart Granger,
Deborah Kerr,
Louis Calhern,
Jane Greer,
Lewis Stone,
Robert Douglas,
James Mason and
Robert Coote. Stone, who played the lead in the 1922 version, has a minor role in this remake. It was adapted by
Edward E. Rose, (dramatization)
Wells Root,
John L. Balderston,
Noel Langley and
Donald Ogden Stewart (additional dialogue, originally uncredited). It was directed by
Richard Thorpe. It is a shameless copy (identical shot for shot) of the 1937 film, the only difference being that it was made in
Technicolor.
*1979 - A comic version, starring
Peter Sellers,
Lynne Frederick,
Lionel Jeffries,
Elke Sommer,
Gregory Sierra,
Jeremy Kemp,
Catherine Schell,
Simon Williams and
Stuart Wilson. It was adapted by
Dick Clement and
Ian La Frenais and directed by
Richard Quine.
Looser adaptations
Double Star (1956), a novel by
Robert A. Heinlein, follows the efforts of actor Lorenzo Smythe, who is hired to act the part of kidnapped statesman John J. Bonforte. He travels to Mars to take part in a crucial ceremony that cannot be postponed (an echo of Rudolph's coronation) and prevents an interplanetary war. The real Bonforte is eventually found, but dies soon afterwards from a drug overdose administered by his kidnappers. Smythe then faces an agonizing choice: either stage Bonforte's death in public and slip back into his old life, or sacrifice his own identity and become the Bonforte he has come to admire greatly.
The 1965 comedy film
The Great Race included an extended
Zenda-like subplot, including a climactic fencing scene between
Tony Curtis and
Ross Martin that surpasses any in the serious film adaptations of the novel.
The 1970
Flashman book
Royal Flash, by
George MacDonald Fraser, is a pastiche of
The Prisoner of Zenda which purports to explain the real story behind the novel.
Otto von Bismarck and other historical characters such as
Lola Montez are involved in the plot.
Royal Flash was released as a movie in 1975. It was directed by
Richard Lester and starred
Malcolm McDowell as Flashman,
Oliver Reed as Otto von Bismarck.
The 1978
Doctor Who serial
The Androids of Tara was consciously based on
Zenda. It used a similar plot and setting, with the added complication of
android doubles of several key characters.
The Zenda Vendetta (Time Wars Book 4) by
Simon Hawke (1985) is another
science fiction version, part of a series which pits 27th century terrorists the Timekeepers against the Time Commandos of the US Army Temporal Corps. One of the Commandos fills the hero's role, while Antoinette's rôle is filled (after a fashion) by a Timekeeper dominatrix.
Moon Over Parador, a 1988 movie, set in the fictional Caribbean nation of Parador. Jack Noah (
Richard Dreyfuss), an unemployed American actor on vacation in Parador, is kidnapped by Strausman (
Raul Julia), the President's chief advisor, and is forced to act as the President's substitute after he dies of a heart attack. With the help of the late President's mistress, Madonna Mendez, he embarks on a series of reforms which win the hearts of the populace by gain the enmity of those supporting the regime. Eventually, he plots to fake his own death (subtituting the original President Alphonse's body, which had literally been kept on ice during this time), in a way that implicates Strausman, allowing him to secretly return to the US while Mendez takes the presidency.
Dave, a 1993 movie, is also set in the modern day United States. It tells the story of a double for the President (
Kevin Kline) who is convinced to impersonate him when he has a stroke. The imposter discovers and helps take down corrupt officials in the government -- including the President that he is pretending to be.
Sigourney Weaver plays the first lady, whose role echoes that of the Princess in the original.
After Zenda by
John Spurling (1995) is a modern adventure, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, in which Karl, the secret great-grandson of Rudolf Rassendyll and Queen Flavia, goes to post-Communist Ruritania, where he gets mixed up with various rebels and religious sects before ending up as constitutional monarch.
The Prisoner of Zenda, Inc., a 1996 made-for-
television version, is set in the modern-day United States and revolves around a
high school age boy who is the heir to a large corporation. It stars
Jonathan Jackson,
Richard Lee Jackson,
William Shatner,
Don S. Davis,
Jay Brazeau and
Katharine Isabelle.
The
anime series
El Hazard: The Magnificent World borrows much from the Hope novel. In this series, a boy and his friends are transported to another world where he bears a strong resemblance to a missing princess and reluctantly agrees to impersonate her.
*
Free ebook of The Prisoner of Zenda at
Project Gutenberg*
Free ebook of Rupert of Hentzau at
Project Gutenberg*
The Ruritanian Resistance - fan site
