Few popular novels (i.e., not classics like Dickens or Austen) have captured the public’s imagination like Anthony Hope‘s “The Prisoner of Zenda.” First published in 1894, Hope’s exciting tale of mistaken identity and royal politics (which spawned the genre known as the “Ruritanian romance”) was adapted for the stage almost immediately, opening at New York’s Lyceum Theater on September 4, 1895. Within a span of 39 years, Hollywood made five movie versions (1913, ‘15, ‘22, ‘37 and ‘52). In 1925, the great Sigmund Romberg wrote the score for “Princess Flavia,” an operetta based on the novel.
“The Prisoner of Zenda” tells the story of Rudolf Rassendyll, traveling through the fictional country of Ruritania, who is mistaken for Rudolf V, soon to be crowned king. The Rudolfs are, in fact, distant cousins, and when Rudolf V is drugged on the eve of his coronation, his loyal aides, Colonel Zapt and Fritz von Tarlenheim, convince Rassendyll to impersonate the king long enough to keep Black Michael, the king’s half-brother, from assuming the throne. Rassendyll must prolong his impersonation when the king is kidnapped and taken to a castle in Zenda. To complicate matters even further, Rassendyll falls in love with the future queen, Princess Flavia, making him question whether the king really needs to be rescued after all. Matching wits, and later swords, with Rassendyll is Rupert of Hentzau, Black Michael’s henchman.
The 1937 film, starring Ronald Colman as Rassendyll/Rudolf V, Madeleine Carroll as Flavia, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. as Rupert, and David Niven as Fritz von Tarlenheim is widely considered the definitive version, and “Halliwell’s Film Guide 2008” calls it “one of the most entertaining films to come out of Hollywood.” The 1952 Technicolor remake was a shot-for-shot copy, and the music was adapted from Alfred Newman’s 1937 score. The 1952 cast included Stewart Granger as Rassendyll/Rudolf V, Deborah Kerr as Flavia, James Mason as Rupert and Robert Coote as Fritz. Though this version didn’t earn any points for originality, it also doesn’t deserve Halliwell’s declaration that it is “no match for the happy inspiration of the original.” Neither Colman nor Granger had seen Rassendyll’s age of twenty-nine for at least a decade, but Granger (39 years old) was more convincing as a young blade than Colman (46). Similarly, the dashing villain Rupert was much more convincingly played by Fairbanks (28) than by Mason (43). Niven, as Fritz, comes across as a friend you would want to have your back, but Coote’s Fritz is just goofy.
“The Prisoner of Zenda” was the subject of a 1939 Lux Radio Theatre episode, with Colman, Fairbanks and C. Aubrey Smith (Colonel Zapt) reprising their roles. Colman’s wife, Benita Hume, played Flavia. On television, the story was adapted for the “DuPont Show of the Month” starring Christopher Plummer as Rassendyll/Rudolf V, Farley Granger as Rupert, and Inger Stevens as Flavia. Unfortunately, the novel’s sequel, “Rupert of Hentzau” was never made into a movie.
In an entertaining example of life imitating art, a German circus acrobat named Otto Witte claimed he had been mistaken for the new King of Albania, was crowned, and reigned for a few days. The timing of his story, 1913, suggests that he made it up after seeing the first movie version. Despite any evidence to support his claim, his identity card (with the permission of the Berlin police) later bore the pseudonym “former King of Albania.” Witte insisted on being greeted with that title for the rest of his life and it was put on his tombstone in Hamburg-Ohlsdorf.
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