Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Lawbolisted Powerful

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Neil Doyle Watching PYGMALION after seeing MY FAIR LADY is one thing. Both films stand on their own two feet--and besides, PYGMALION came first. Even without Lerner and Lowe's music, PYGMALION is a truly wonderful film.Watching a silent STUDENT PRINCE without a Romberg melody blasting away from Carl Davis' score is another matter. Nor does NORMAL SHEARER, sporting an unattractive hairdo that makes her look matronly, look the part of a youthful barmaid, Kathi. RAMON NAVARRO plays the prince with a puppy dog eagerness and a winning smile but nothing to suggest believable chemistry with him and the dowdy looking Shearer. Surely, there must have been a better hairdresser for this particular film to at least give her a more youthful look. She ovedoes the coy flirtatiousness of the early scenes, batting her eyelashes at every drinking student.There's a certain heavy-handedness to Ernst Lubitsch's direction and an excessive amount of men doffing their hats to each other. And the final reunion scene with Navarro not getting the warm welcome from friends that he expected, is a bit overdone. These are things the silent technique probably could not avoid, even with a director like Lubitsch who is known for "that touch." On the plus side, JEAN HERSHOLT is excellent as an amiable and kindly adviser to the prince and gives warmth to the role. The Carl Davis score played by a full orchestra is delightful but one does miss hearing the hero and heroine sing the familiar operetta songs by Romberg, especially during the student drinking scenes.One has to wonder what the film was like on original release without a score like Davis wrote for the restored version. Strange indeed to have a silent film based on a famous musical.Needless to say, not my favorite Shearer film--and I enjoyed Navarro more in BEN-HUR.

bkoganbing Before Sigmund Romberg and Dorothy Donnelly wrote their immortal score for The Student Prince, it had originally been performed as a straight dramatic work by the great turn of the last century stage actor, Richard Mansfield. Entitled In Old Heidelberg it is what we are in fact seeing here as opposed to a silent version of the musical, an oxymoron if there ever was one.I do so love the music of Romberg and Donnelly, especially what they wrote for The Student Prince. Yet I was able to appreciate the fine dramatic work of Ramon Novarro as the prince of Karlsbad and Norma Shearer as Kathi the barmaid. They certainly were as romantic a couple as ever graced the silent screen.Without the music, this version of The Student Prince went for characterization instead. There is a long sequence of about a quarter of the running time of the film that goes into Prince Karl's childhood with young Philippe DeLacy playing the prince as a child. We see the relationship with the very stern King played by Gustave Von Seyfertitz and later on when he's introduced to his tutor and closest friend, Jean Hersholt. Hersholt has the best performance in the film.Novarro plays a most charming prince and Shearer is a fetching barmaid with whom he falls in love with. After the childhood prologue, the rest of the film is pretty much the same as the 1954 version with Ann Blyth, Edmond Purdom and the voice of Mario Lanza.For reasons I don't understand MGM which held the rights to the Student Prince did not make a sound version until 1954. Odd when you consider that during the Thirties they had Allan Jones under contract who would have been wonderful in the part. Having heard him sing Deep In My Heart I can attest to that. Failing that it sure could have been a property for Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald.I believe the German locale of the story probably had something to do with it not being filmed. Also the subject of an errant prince refusing to face his responsibilities was a big international story with the once and future Edward VIII giving it all up for the woman he loved. I can believe that Irving Thalberg and Louis B. Mayer probably did not want to anger the British market at that time.Though I missed the Romberg/Donnelly score, I still enjoyed the performances of Ramon Novarro and Norma Shearer and the rest of the cast being transported back to Old Heidelberg under the masterful direction of Ernest Lubitsch. Try to see this if it is ever broadcast again.

chuck-61 An involving, clever, romantic, and sometimes very funny film featuring two of the era's most popular stars. Forget all the other silent starlets; Norma Shearer is the Queen of the silent movies! I'd never seen her in anything but dramas, and was delighted to see what a great comic actress she was. Ramon has some great moments, too. The end of the movie was a bit of a surprise, and is just one more reason to view this charming romantic comedy-drama.

teleny By the time this came out, operetta was in decline, and so were silents. Still this is...well, quite the movie. Lubisch managed to turn what would have otherwise been a fairy tale into a believable drama between a saucy, popular, waitress and a university's "special student", a prince raised with little contact with the outside world (and whose father is paying for him to be kept that way). Sexy details abound: Dad, in this version, apparently owes his son to a similar intregue, Kathi balances her virginal prettiness with knowing gestures (check out how she demonstrates the softness of the bed!) If you think silents are campy, you'll like this one...it camps itself. And you'll love it.