Most Romantic Adventure Story of All Time

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 45, 23 February 1938, Page 11

Most Romantic Adventure Story of All Time

FAMOUS STARS ADD GLORY TO “PRtSONER OF ZENDA”

(Regent: Screening Saturday.) A magnificent piece of entertainment is "The Prisoner of Zenda,” Anthony Hope’s swash-buckling tale of love, intrigue and adveflture 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 among the courts of Europe, which Johii Cromw'ell directed from a screen-play which John L. Balderston and Weils Root based on Edward Rose’s dramatization of the Anthony Hope novel. Miss Carroll plays the beautiful Princess Flavia and young Fairbanks ia seen as the dashing Rupert of Hentzau.

Ronald Colman has succeeded in imparting to his dual role the most distinct separation of two personalities ever portrayed on the screen by a single star. His method was unique in the annals of filmdom. He uses mirrors to achieve the striking result. Mirrors entered the picture in Colman’s rehearsals for the most difficult parts—those in which Rudolf and Rassendyll meet, shake hands, and discuss matters both humorous and serious. To make sure that his reactions to certain lines would differ from character to character, Colman observed himself as he ran through each part. If changes in technique were needed, he made them.

John L. Balderston and Wells Root have made a grand screen play, and all the members of tho imposing cast turn in uniformly fine performances, under the expert direction of John Cromwell. Tho eye-filling costumes were designed by Ernst Dryden, and the splendid photography is credited to James Wong Howe.