The Prisoner of Zenda (1952) on Netflix
In Ruritania, English gentleman Rudolf Rassendyll meets King Rudolf V, a distant relative and double. With the king drugged before the coronation, Colonel Zapt asks Rassendyll to stand in.
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Plot summary
Rudolf Rassendyll, an English gentleman, takes a fishing holiday in the Balkan kingdom of Ruritania, where the odd way the locals react to him puzzles him. Captain Fritz von Tarlenheim and Colonel Zapt introduce him to the uncrowned king, Rudolf V, a distant relative who looks exactly like him apart from a mustache. The king takes a liking to him and asks him to stay at the hunting lodge, where they drink late. The king drains a bottle of wine sent by his half-brother, Duke Michael, and cannot be awakened the next morning. The wine was drugged, and the coronation is that day. If the king fails to appear, Michael will claim royal authority as Regent, so Zapt persuades the reluctant Rassendyll to impersonate Rudolf at the ceremony, where he meets the king's betrothed, Princess Flavia.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Prisoner of Zenda (1952)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Two days before shooting the 1922 silent version, Lewis Stone's costumes had still not been made; director Rex Ingram asked whether he had saved anything from his stage production, and Stone had the entire wardrobe in his attic.
- The 1952 remake used the same shooting script and the same Alfred Newman score as the 1937 David O. Selznick version, with Noel Langley adding slight variations, and its settings and camera angles are mostly the same.
- Deborah Kerr played Princess Flavia, but Jean Simmons, then married to co-star Stewart Granger, and Eleanor Parker had both been considered for the role.
- James Mason played Rupert of Hentzau, a part Richard Greene had been set to portray but lost because of a scheduling conflict.
- Donald Ogden Stewart, a blacklisted writer credited with additional dialogue on the 1937 film, was given a restored credit for the 1952 version in 1999.
