The Prisoner of Zenda

The Prisoner of Zenda is an adventure novel by Anthony Hope, first published in 1894. It tells the story of a man who has to impersonate a king, whom he happens to closely resemble, when the king is abducted by enemies on the eve of his coronation.

The villainous Rupert of Hentzau gives his name to its 1898 sequel, included in some editions of the book.

The Ruritania books were extremely popular at the time they were published and inspired a host of imitations, including the Graustark novels by George Barr McCutcheon.

Plot summary

The protagonist is the Hon. Rudolf Rassendyll, younger brother of the Earl of Burlesdon and (through an ancestor's indiscretion) a distant cousin of Rudolf V, the soon-to-be King of Ruritania (a fictional Germanic kingdom situated between the German and Austrian Empires). King Rudolf is a hard-drinking, feckless playboy, unpopular with the common people, but supported by the aristocracy, the Church, the army, and the wealthier classes in general. His political rival is his younger half-brother, Michael, Duke and Governor of Strelsau, the capital city. Michael has no legal claim to the throne because he is the son of their father's second, morganatic marriage: there are hints, regarding his swarthy appearance and Rassendyll's use of the word 'mongrel' to taunt him, that he may be part-Jewish. He is regarded as the champion of Strelsau's impoverished working-class, and is also popular in the countryside. (The morality of the novel - that propping up a dissolute despot is a 'good thing' - is disconcerting. It is possible that the author, something of an ironist, is playing with his readers, or perhaps wishes us to see Rassendyll as a not-entirely reliable narrator.)

When Michael has Rudolf abducted and imprisoned in the castle in the small town of Zenda, Rassendyll has to impersonate the future King at his coronation. There are various complications, plots and counter-plots, among them the schemes of Michael's mistress Antoinette de Mauban, and his villainous henchman Rupert of Hentzau, and Rassendyll falling in love with Princess Flavia, the King's betrothed. The King is finally restored to the throne - but the lovers must part.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

The novel has been adapted many times for film and television, the best-known screen version being the 1937 film.

1937 film

The black-and-white classic adaptation starred Ronald Colman (Rassendyll and King Rudolph), Madeleine Carroll (Princess Flavia), Raymond Massey (Duke Michael), Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (Rupert), Mary Astor, C. Aubrey Smith and David Niven.

The movie was adapted by Wells Root, John L. Balderston, Donald Ogden Stewart (additional dialogue) Ben Hecht (uncredited) and Sidney Howard (uncredited) from the novel and the adapted play by Edward E. Rose. It was directed by John Cromwell. Woody Van Dyke re-shot the fencing scenes.

The script's basis in the 1895 stage version is readily apparent: there is little attempt to open up the story. The emphasis is very much on romance and adventure, rather than on the political thriller aspects of the story.

It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Art Direction and Best Music, Score. The score was composed by Alfred Newman. The rousing music was used for the sneak preview of Gone With The Wind in 1939.

Taglines:

''The most thrilling swordfight ever filmed...
Romance and adventure to thrill you!''

Trivia

The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Co-stars Raymond Massey and David Niven died on the same day: July 29,1983

Director John Cromwell was unhappy with his male leads, as he suspected that Colman didn't know his lines, and was concerned with Fairbanks' and Niven's late nights on the town.

C. Aubrey Smith, who plays Colonel Sapt, played Michael in the original production of the 1895 stage play on which this film's screenplay is based.

The television series Northern Exposure featured an episode in which a character re-dubs the film into Tlingit, a native American language.

Other adaptations

The Prisoner of Zenda has been filmed several other times:

1913 - Starring James K. Hackett, Beatrice Beckley, David Torrence, Fraser Coalter, William R. Randall and Walter Hale. Adapted by Hugh Ford and directed by Ford and Edwin S. Porter, it was produced by Adolph Zukor and was the first production of the Famous Players Film Company.
1915 - Starring Henry Ainley, Gerald Ames, George Bellamy, Marie Anita Bozzi, Jane Gail, Arthur Holmes-Gore, Charles Rock and Norman Yates. It was adapted by W. Courtney Rowden and directed by George Loane Tucker
1922 - Starring Ramon Novarro, Lewis Stone, Alice Terry, Robert Edeson, Stuart Holmes, Malcolm McGregor and Barbara La Marr. It was adapted by Mary O'Hara and directed by Rex Ingram.
1952 - Starring Stewart Granger, Deborah Kerr, Louis Calhern, Jane Greer, Lewis Stone, Robert Douglas, James Mason and Robert Coote. Stone, who played the lead in the 1922 version, has a minor role in this remake. It was adapted by Edward E. Rose, (dramatization) Wells Root, John L. Balderston, Noel Langley and Donald Ogden Stewart (additional dialogue, originally uncredited). It was directed by Richard Thorpe. It is a shameless copy (identical shot for shot) of the 1937 film, the only difference being that it was made in Technicolor.
1979 - A comic version, starring Peter Sellers, Lynne Frederick, Lionel Jeffries, Elke Sommer, Gregory Sierra, Jeremy Kemp, Catherine Schell, Simon Williams and Stuart Wilson. It was adapted by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais and directed by Richard Quine.

Looser adaptations

Double Star (1956), a novel by Robert Heinlein, follows the efforts of actor Lorenzo Smythe, who is hired to act the part of kidnapped statesman John J. Bonforte. He travels to Mars to take part in a crucial ceremony that cannot be postponed (an echo of Rudolph's coronation) and prevents an interplanetary war. The real Bonforte is eventually found, but dies soon afterwards from a drug overdose administered by his kidnappers. Smythe then faces an agonizing choice: either stage Bonforte's death in public and slip back into his old life, or sacrifice his own identity and become the Bonforte he has come to admire greatly.

The 1965 comedy film The Great Race included an extended Zenda-like subplot, including a climactic fencing scene between Tony Curtis and Ross Martin that surpasses any in the serious film adaptations of the novel.

The 1970 Flashman book Royal Flash, by George MacDonald Fraser, is a pastiche of The Prisoner of Zenda which purports to explain the real story behind the novel. Otto von Bismarck and other historical characters such as Lola Montez are involved in the plot. Royal Flash was released as a movie in 1975. It was directed by Richard Lester and starred Malcolm McDowell as Flashman, Oliver Reed as Otto von Bismarck.

The 1978 Doctor Who serial The Androids of Tara was consciously based on Zenda. It used a similar plot and setting, with the added complication of android doubles of several key characters.

The Zenda Vendetta (Time Wars Book 4) by Simon Hawke (1985) is another science fiction version, part of a series which pits 27th century terrorists the Timekeepers against the Time Commandos of the US Army Temporal Corps. One of the Commandos fills the hero's role, while Antoinette's rôle is filled (after a fashion) by a Timekeeper dominatrix. However, the author seems to have been unaware of the existence of a sequel to the original, which is made impossible by some of his interpolations in the canon. He also changes the political and social divisions within Ruritania, and - like some of the previous film versions - relocates it to the Balkans.

Moon Over Parador, a 1988 movie, set in the fictional Caribbean nation of Parador. Jack Noah (Richard Dreyfuss), an unemployed American actor on vacation in Parador, is kidnapped by Strausman (Raul Julia), the President's chief advisor, and is forced to act as the President's substitute after he dies of a heart attack. With the help of the late President's mistress, Madonna Mendez, he embarks on a series of reforms which win the hearts of the populace by gain the enmity of those supporting the regime. Eventually, he plots to fake his own death (subtituting the original President Alphonse's body, which had literally been kept on ice during this time), in a way that implicates Strausman, allowing him to secretly return to the US while Mendez takes the presidency.

Dave, a 1993 movie, is also set in the modern day United States. It tells the story of a double for the President (Kevin Kline) who is convinced to impersonate him when he has a stroke. The imposter discovers and helps take down corrupt officials in the government -- including the President that he is pretending to be. Sigourney Weaver plays the first lady, whose role echoes that of the Princess in the original. Other stars include Frank Langella, Ving Rhames, Ben Kingsley, and Laura Linney. It was written by Gary Ross and directed by Ivan Reitman.

After Zenda by John Spurling (1995) is a modern adventure, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, in which Karl, the secret great-grandson of Rudolf Rassendyll and Queen Flavia, goes to post-Communist Ruritania, where he gets mixed up with various rebels and religious sects before ending up as constitutional monarch. However, this could have easily been made to stand on its own feet without relying the Ruritania mythos: again, the geographical setting and time-period of the events in the original Anthony Hope canon have been changed.

The Prisoner of Zenda, Inc., a 1996 made-for-television version, is set in the modern-day United States and revolves around a high school age boy who is the heir to a large corporation. It stars Jonathan Jackson, Richard Lee Jackson, William Shatner, Don S. Davis, Jay Brazeau and Katharine Isabelle.

The anime series El Hazard: The Magnificent World borrows much from the Hope novel. In this series, a boy and his friends are transported to another world where he bears a strong resemblance to a missing princess and reluctantly agrees to impersonate her.

External links

The Ruritanian Resistance - fan site

Der Gefangene von Zenda | Пленник Зенды (фильм) | Fången på Zenda