The Prisoner of Zenda

"A Swashbuckling Adventure In The Grand Style!"

Nov 14 1952 Approved 1h 36m
Adventure

A kingdom's ascending heir, marked for assassination, switches identities with a lookalike, who takes his place at the coronation. When the real king is kidnapped, his followers try to find him, while the stand-in falls in love with the king's intended bride, the beautiful Princess Flavia.

Plot

English trout fisher Rudolf Rassendyll is about the only tourist not coming for the coronation of Central-European King Rudolf V at Strelsau, but happens to be a distant relative and is approached on account of their canning resemblance to stand in for the drunken king, in order to prevent his envious half-brother Michael, who arranged spiking his wine to seize the throne when the reputedly less then dutiful Rudolf stays away. The ceremony goes well, and he gets acquainted with the charming royal bride, related princess Flavia, but afterward the king is found to be abducted; he must continue the charade and once the hiding place, the castle of Zenda, is found is involved in the fight between political parties for control over Rudolf V, his throne and his bride, for which a formidable third candidate, Michael's disloyal co-conspirator Rupert of Hentzau, was waiting in the curtains.

Written by

John L. Balderston, Noel Langley, Wells Root

Directed by

Richard Thorpe

Production Countries

United States of America

Production Companies

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Languages

Italiano, English

Awards

N/A

Scores
# of Votes
4,306
Average Rating
6.9 out of 10
Metascore
NA
Popularity
NA