The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) on Netflix
Approved19371h 41mAdventureDramaRomance
English gentleman Rudolf Rassendyll meets King Rudolph V and is struck by their close resemblance. Before the coronation the king is drugged, and Rassendyll takes his place at the ceremony.
- Netflix4.4/5
- IMDb7.6/105,524 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Rudolf Rassendyll, an English gentleman on a fishing holiday, travels to a small country, where the locals greet him with odd looks. Colonel Zapt and Captain Fritz von Tarlenheim explain the reason: he is a distant relative of Rudolph V, the king about to be crowned, and the two men are almost identical. The king, amused by the resemblance, takes a liking to the Englishman, and they drink late into the night. The wine, sent by the king's half-brother Duke Michael, was drugged. Michael is the elder, but his mother was not of royal blood, so the throne passes to Rudolph, and a coronation missed would hand Michael his chance. Zapt persuades a reluctant Rassendyll to stand in at the ceremony, where he meets the king's betrothed, Princess Flavia.
Cast
- Eleanor Wesselhoeftas Frau Holf the Cook
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Douglas Fairbanks Jr. initially wanted to play Rudolf in The Prisoner of Zenda, but the part went to Ronald Colman; Fairbanks's father, Douglas Fairbanks, told him that Rupert of Hentzau was one of the best villains ever written.
- The shoot was difficult: director John Cromwell suspected Ronald Colman did not know his lines and worried about Douglas Fairbanks Jr.'s and David Niven's late nights, so George Cukor directed some scenes and Woody Van Dyke re-shot fencing scenes.
- Selznick was partly inspired to make The Prisoner of Zenda by the abdication of Edward VIII, and he exploited that angle when marketing the film.
- For Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, director Nicholas Meyer had costume designer Robert Fletcher base the new Starfleet uniforms on those worn in The Prisoner of Zenda; the uniforms then appeared in six Star Trek films, up to Star Trek Generations.
SPOILER
A prologue and an epilogue were shot for The Prisoner of Zenda but never used: the prologue had an elderly Rassendyll recounting his adventures in his club, and in the epilogue he receives a letter from von Tarlenheim and a rose telling him Flavia has died.- When the play opened in London in January 1896, C. Aubrey Smith had played the dual lead roles, and Raymond Massey later asked him for advice; Smith said he had played every part in The Prisoner of Zenda except Princess Flavia and always had trouble with Black Michael.
- Alfred Newman's nomination for the score of The Prisoner of Zenda was the first of the 43 Academy Award nominations he received, and Lyle R. Wheeler was nominated for Best Art Direction.
- In 1991 the United States Library of Congress deemed this 1937 version of The Prisoner of Zenda culturally, historically or aesthetically significant and selected it for preservation in its National Film Registry.
