The Prisoner of Zenda (1979)

User Rating:

4.5/10   

Director:

Richard Quine

Writers:

Anthony Hope (novel)
Dick Clement (writer) ...

Release Date:

17 August 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy

Plot:

Anthony Hope's classic tale gets a decidedly 'un-classic' treatment at the hands of Peter Sellers. Following the story somewhat...

Plot Keywords:

Impersonation | Substitution | Impostor | Based On Novel

Cast

Peter Sellers	...	Rudolf IV / Rudolf V / Syd Frewin
Lynne Frederick	...	Princess Flavia
Lionel Jeffries	...	General Sapt
Elke Sommer	...	The Countess
Gregory Sierra	...	The Count
Jeremy Kemp	...	Duke Michael
Catherine Schell	...	Antoinette
Simon Williams	...	Fritz
Stuart Wilson	...	Rupert of Hentzau
Norman Rossington	...	Bruno
John Laurie	...	Archbishop
Graham Stark	...	Erik
Michael Balfour	...	Luger
Arthur Howard	...	Deacon
Ian Abercrombie	...	Johann

Runtime:

108 min | Canada:93 min (Ontario)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | Finland:K-12 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Universal Studios Theme Park, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

John Cleese signed on after EMI pulled out of Life of Brian (1979) and it looked like the film would be canceled.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Secret Life of Brian (2007) (TV)

Unimpressive

I`m not very familiar with THE PRISONER OF ZENDA . I know it`s a novel by Anthony Hope that involves an English commoner who so resembles the King of Rurtinia so much that he becomes a stand in , I know that Robert Donat starred in a well regarded film version , and that the 1978 DOCTOR WHO story The Andriods Of Tara was based on Hope`s novel . That was all I really knew as I sat down to watch this comedy version of the story

I was totally unimpressed , not by the bare bones of the story but by the obvious fact that there`s no laughs in this alleged comedy . I can`t think of one moment when I cracked a smile never mind burst out laughing . In fact about half way through all the evidence points that writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais just gave up attempting to make lame jokes and just wrote a traditional version of the story . But my major gripe is with director Richard Quine who spent twelve and a half million dollars on this movie which looks like it has a budget less than a tenth of that sum . All the interior sets look totally cheap and fake and there`s an action sequence involving a stage coach which is laughably bad . The whole sequence is shot at ground level to disguise the fact that the coach isn`t moving more than 10 mph , cut to some abysmal back screen projection with Peter Sellers wrestling with one of the bad guys , then cut back again to an exterior shot of the 10mph coach with all the characters looking away from screen so you won`t notice the characters are played by stuntmen . I wasn`t fooled by this type of sequence in James Bond films from the 1980s and I wasn`t fooled here