Seeing Double Can Be an Eye-Opener

MGM/UA Home Video, which has put together some of the most interesting double movie bills for laser disc, has come up with two of its most intriguing combinations yet: double features of different film versions of the same story.

It was an inspired idea to combine “The Prisoner of Zenda” released in 1937 with “The Prisoner of Zenda” released 15 years later (1952), and “The Student Prince,” a silent 1927 film, with “The Student Prince,” the 1954 musical extravaganza (both $45). The two laser albums offer valuable lessons for desperate studio executives eager to refashion past glories. Sometimes, just sometimes, you may not be able to improve on the first film, even with the most popular stars of the day and the latest technology.

Case in point No. 1: “The Prisoner of Zenda.” The 1937 David O. Selznick epic based on the Anthony Hope adventure tale brought together a captivating cast. Ronald Colman in a dual role as visiting tourist Rassendyll and a small country’s ruling monarch, King Rudolf V, exudes romance, charm, sophistication, soft-spoken intelligence, and in a much-abused word, class. Douglas Fairbanks Jr., in one of the most ingratiating roles of his career, displays the dash and derring-do that almost steals the film out from under Colman, and Madeleine Carroll essays a young, beautiful princess with charm and vulnerability. Add to that mix a snarling Raymond Massey who personifies evil and a young David Niven just starting out and you have a combination hard to beat.

The John L. Balderston screenplay is an hour and 41 minutes of fast-moving fun, with John Cromwell’s direction enhanced by James Wong Howe’s evocative black-and-white photography and Alfred Newman’s apt score.

With the advent of Technicolor 15 years later, it’s gotta get better, right? Wrong, Leo. The MGM remake featuring Stewart Granger in the Colman role, James Mason in the Fairbanks role and Deborah Kerr as Princess Flavia sounds great on paper. The trouble is, it’s surprisingly stolid on the screen. This is even more surprising since the film is virtually a scene-for-scene remake. The Balderston script was apparently tinkered with by Noel Langley, but the changes are almost impossible to find. Richard Thorpe’s direction is hopelessly inept; he moves his characters as if they were cardboard dolls aping human actors.

Case in point No. 2: “The Student Prince.” Surely a remake with “the singing voice” of Mario Lanza in the body of Edmund Purdom would be an improvement on the silent story of a young prince mixing among the hoi polloi, ultimately torn between true love and duty. Alas, Director Richard Thorpe (yet again) working with sound and color is no Ernest Lubitsch with black and white on silent film.

In defiant emphasis that silent films were never really silent at all but were always accompanied by some kind of music, the silent version of “The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg” is immeasurably helped by a brand-new orchestral score by Carl Davis that fits each frame of the film perfectly. Davis’ score adds to the pleasure of watching stars Ramon Novarro (in a fresh, irresistible performance), Norma Shearer (looking far better than she did after MGM executive Irving Thalberg and sound came along), and Jean Hersholt (in a sly turn long before he achieved radio and movie popularity as the folksy hometown Dr. Christian).

The later Cinemascope version, which MGM/UA wisely letterboxes, has Lanza’s voice and some of the familiar Sigmund Romberg original music for the operetta including the world-famous “Drinking Song.” But for some reason, the ‘50s MGM masterminds added some insipid new songs, including “I’ll Walk With God.”

Lanza’s voice, unfortunately, is embodied in a game Purdom who tries his best to look natural and virile. But he and the others in the cast, including Ann Blyth, Louis Calhern and Edmund Gwenn, are so artificial when compared to the youthful exuberance of Novarro and Shearer, that not even Lanza’s vocals can save the day.