Adventure Story Becomes Masterpiece of Entertainment

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 39, 16 February 1938, Page 11

Adventure Story Becomes Masterpiece of Entertainment

ANTHONY HOPE’S “PRISONER OF ZENDA” HAS PERFECT CAST

(Regent: Screening Saturday week.) Right on the heels of his sensational hit, “A Star is Born,” David O. Selznick has ushered in another magnificent piece of entertainment. The picture is “The Prisoner of Zenda,” Anthony Hope’s swashbuckling tale of love, intrigue and adventure in the Courts of Europe, with Ronald Colman, Madeleine Carroll and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., in the leading roles.

Colman plays the dual role of King Rudolf V and the adventurous , Rassendyll in this tale of love and intrigue 1 among the courts of Europe, which John Cromwell directed from a screen-play which John L. Balderston and Wei’s Root based on Edward Rose’s dramatization of the Anthony Hope novel. Miss Carroll plays the beautiful Princess Flavia and young Fairbanks is seen as the dashing Rupert of Hentzau. Lavishly mounted with some sixtyodd breath-taking sets, including a cathedral, a castle, and the sumptuous ' castle ballroom, designed by Lyle Wheeler, “The Prisoner of Zenda” offers some of the most impressive and beautiful scenes ever filmed, notably the Coronation ceremony and the Coronation ball.

John L. Balderston and Wells Root have made a grand screen play, based on Edward Rose’s dramatisation of the Anthony Hope novel, and all the members of the imposing cast turn in uniformly fine performances under the expert direction of John Cromwell. The eye-filling costumes were designed by Ernst’ Dryden, and the splendid photography is credited to James Wong Howe.