Movie Review: The Prince and the Pauper (1937)
Synopsis: Tom Canty is the son of an abusive and criminal father and has spent his whole life in poverty while Edward Tudor is the son of King Henry VIII and the prince of Wales. When the two boys cross paths and realize they look exactly alike, they switch clothes as a prank, only to have the resulting case of mistaken identity result in Edward being thrown off the palace grounds. When Tom tries to correct the situation, nobody believes him except for the Earl of Hertford, who uses the information to blackmail Tom, who is about to be crowned King of England, to do his bidding while arranging for the real Edward's murder.
Who's in it? The movie stars Billy and Robert J. Mauch, Errol Flynn, Claude Rains, Barton MacLane and Alan Hale.
Review: I didn't intend on watching a movie this morning because I hadn't picked one out ahead of time and only had a limited amount of time to choose. However, I happened to come across The Prince and the Pauper and figured it would be hard to go wrong with a movie that starred both Errol Flynn and Claude Rains, so I gave it a try.
Overall, I have to say it was a good choice.
One of the things that impressed me with this movie is how it made a serious effort to follow Mark Twain's book as closely as possible without being drawn out. This is a difficult balance that many other movies have failed to do, and the end result was a movie that kept the essence of the source material but still moved at a reasonable pace.
The movie also had quite a bit of action, especially when it came to sword fighting scenes. They were exciting to watch and were done in a way that made them fit seamlessly into the overall film without feeling forced.
What really won me over though was Rains' performance as the Earl of Hertford. This is the kind of movie that is only going to be as good as the main bad guy and Rains played the character perfectly. He was clearly evil and had the skills to back that up. I think I enjoyed his story about ten times more than I did the story about the twins.
My only real complaint about the movie would be the coronation scene, which I already thought was a bit too long even before they added the part about proving which of the two princes was the real one. The movie could have easily edited out a few minutes of that scene without having any impact on the overall plot.
Final Opinion: This was a solid film with a good mix of action and drama. It's worth taking the time to watch.
My Grade: A
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Here are some reviews of other movies from 1937:
Movie Review: Smart Blonde (1937)
Movie Review: It's Love I'm After (1937)
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