El príncipe y la corista

Laurence Olivier is famous for being a great actor. Marilyn Monroe is famous for being Marilyn Monroe. But Monroe had some acting chops too and she shows them off to good effect in The Prince and the Showgirl. While Olivier turns in an oddly wooden, unnatural performance Monroe shines. OK, maybe playing a sexy showgirl wasn't a great stretch for her. But she does so well with the role, a role which required her to be more than just a sex object. Her character, Elsie, has to show some smarts too as she keeps up with the film's political machinations. Of course the political stuff is just a sideshow. The main attraction here is watching the showgirl sweep the stuffy prince off his feet without even really trying.

The story unfolds in London in 1911 with dignitaries having arrived for the royal coronation. Olivier plays the Prince Regent of a fictional Eastern European nation. He rules until his son comes of age and takes the throne. His son may not want to wait, plotting with the Germans to overthrow dear old Dad. The British government is anxious to curry favor with the father, who sides with them rather than the Germans. While he is in London the prince's every whim will be catered to, he gets whatever he wants. And what he wants, after a quick backstage theater visit, is a one night stand with Elsie. She is invited to the embassy for what she believes to be a party but she's the only one attending this "party" with the prince. She's been brought there for one reason. But Elsie will have none of it, rebuffing the prince's clumsy pass. The night goes on, she starts to fall for him a bit...but then the prince's plan to get her drunk backfires as she passes out. When she wakes in the morning all heck will be breaking loose.

The following day, coronation day, is a whirlwind of activity. Elsie finds herself caught up in things way beyond the realm of a simple showgirl. But she more than holds her own. Can she repair the relationship between father and son, perhaps preventing a revolution, maybe even stopping a world war? And, more to the point since this is meant to be a romantic film, can she get the prince to fall in love with her? The movie never really sizzles. Monroe is more than game but Olivier comes across as a bit of a cold fish. The chemistry between the pair never entirely convinces. The story moves rather slowly. At times the story doesn't really move at all and it never quite manages to hit the emotional heights. But somehow the movie still manages to be reasonably entertaining. By sheer force of personality Monroe makes the film work. She charms you, makes you love her and, when it's called for, she definitely makes you laugh. Monroe spices up what otherwise could have been a very drab movie. She may not be royalty but the showgirl is undoubtedly the star which allows this movie to shine.

If this movie would have been like its first 40 minutes, now we'd been talking about a masterpiece. Unfortunately, after the initial fireworks due to the perfect duet between an extraordinary actor as Laurence Olivier and the magnificent Marilyn Monroe, the movie loses its push, maybe because the story doesn't know where to go. Actually the movie is good only when there's Olivier and Marilyn together in a room: the rest is really pointless. It's a pity because the scenography, the music, the acting and the direction of Olivier were good. A lost opportunity.

If you are a Monroe fan you are in for an hour-and-a-half of sheer enjoyment watching the ingenuous, irrepressible, sexy/innocent personality that Marilyn played so well. It's hard to take your eyes off her as feelings,thoughts,and reactions to events flow over her features in a feast of method acting, if that's what it is. The little story is entertaining in a shallow sort of way - there's something going on with mitteleuropa politics and family tensions but it hardly matters as the engine of the story is the wide-eyed little commoner dumped into an aristocratic environment, and everything that transpires in the short time-frame of her visit. The joke there is that she is always being farewelled but doesn't quite go, and reappears, always in the same dress. There's a fairly familiar thread contrasting sophisticated and corrupt Europe with the honest, down-to-earth representative of the New World. However the European side does provide the excuse for some great costumes and sumptuous interiors, making the film glamorous to watch. Laurence Olivier is reptilian and repulsive as the Grand Duke, which is fine except that we are supposed to believe that the Monroe character has fallen for him. This is not too credible! The direction is tight and effective, so kudos to Olivier for that. Sybil Thorndike is great fun as the Dowager Queen. It's Monroe's film however. I'd happily watch it any number of times.

Grand Duke Charles (Laurence Olivier) is the prince-regent of Carpathia, a fictional Balkan country which could be the cause of a worldwide war. He's in London with his pro-German minor son and the Dowager Queen to attend the coronation of King George V in 1911. British foreign officer Northbrook (Richard Wattis) is tasked with getting him whatever he wants. The Prince is completely taken by the actress Elsie Marina (Marilyn Monroe) at the Coconut Girl Club. Northbrook brings her to a supper for two.

Laurence Olivier is very stiff which is his character. He's a tiresome old geezer. He is utterly overshadowed by Marilyn Monroe in every scene. This is a very unlikeable romance. The two characters and actors have no chemistry whatsoever. When it comes, the romance feels forced and uncomfortable. Monroe is great when she's drunk acting. She's magical and the screen loves her. The difference between the two can't be any greater. She is fun and hilarious. The movie grinds down whenever she's not on the screen.

This is one of those movies where the set pace of events are known to the audience, so that when it reaches it's conclusion we are aware that what we (the audience) might wish can happen for the two leads is not going to be possible.

It is 1911, and we are in London for the coronation week of King George V and his wife Queen Mary. If you have read THE GUNS OF AUGUST by Barbara Tuchman, this event was the last great occasion for the appearance of all the crowned heads of Europe prior to the destruction (in seven years) of three leading houses (Hohenzollern, Romanov, and Hapsburg) due to World War II. Despite the survival of several other monarchies in Scandanavia, the Benelux countries, and (in revival) in Spain, the three lost ones of 1918 are now joined by the lost ones of the Balkans. And it is the Balkans that is the spot that Laurence Olivier's Carpathia is located in.

In reality Carpathia is part of Hungary and Roumania. Part of it (Transylvania) is well known through the story of Dracula. But for the sake of this story, it is an independent kingdom like Roumania, Bulgaria, and Serbia at that time. Prince Charles, the Regent of Carpathia, is running the country until his son King Nicholas comes of age in 18 months. So sometime in 1913 Nicholas will start ruling in his own name, and he is pro-German. Charles is pro-English. This would be unimportant but Carpathia has the fourth best army in Europe, so if it shifts it's position it may cause an unbalanced international situation that may lead to a general war.

Charles (Laurence Olivier) and Nicholas (Jeremy Spenser) and Nicholas' grandmother the Queen Dowager (Sybil Thorndike) are attending it. Charles is being monitored by Foreign Office official Northbrook (Richard Wattis), who wants to make sure the Regent is happy on his visit. Charles attends a show, and decides that one of the minor actresses, Elsie Mariner (Marilyn Monroe) should be invited to the Carpathian Embassy for a late supper. Despite misgivings Northbrook arranges for Elsie to show up.

But Elsie (although welcomed by the amorous Charles) finds she has to watch as he spends time talking about a political problem at home - the capture of one of Nicholas' clique of pro-German friends who has been caught with some compromising documents that would hurt the King. Charles plans to squeeze the arrested man for all the information he can get about Nicholas' schemes, but admits to his telephone informant that he is more likely to have problems about the situation from President Taft and his meddlesome Americans than from anyone else. Elsie, who overhears this, is angered (she is an American). The result is a moment that most fans of Monroe don't recall. They remember that she sang Happy Birthday to President Kennedy once, but here she toasted President William Howard Taft with champagne.

Charles finds Elsie not like other women he has had one night stands with. First, he never gets to first base with her (she gets drunk and falls asleep, despite his varied attempts to get her into the right mood and position). Second, she does not leave as he hopes, but keeps getting stuck deeper and deeper into the embassy and the Royal Family's world (even attending the coronation at Westminster Abbey). She is there for the embassy ball, and she even has a second night where she is in control of the trysting. Charles married his late wife and did his duty for her and her country, but he finds he loves Elsie. But he is leaving at the start of the third day for Carpathia with his mother and son, and has another 18 months of duty before he is free. And Elsie has 18 months left to her play contract. They do say "au revoir" at the end, but will they get back together. For they can't until 1913, the start of the Second Balkan War, and one of the steps that brought World War I to fruition.

The film was based on a play, THE SLEEPING PRINCE by Terence Rattigan, one of the best dramatists of England in the 20th Century (THE WINSLOW BOY, THE BROWNING VERSION). A practitioner of what Shaw called "the well-made play", Rattigan made sure his plays were entertaining and intelligent, and his characters were realistic. But in the original play Elsie was not American, but English, and was played by Vivien Leigh. Olivier had thought of filming the play with Leigh, but her illness interfered. Monroe was available, and was big box-office. Olivier was to direct her, his first film direction assignment since RICHARD III. She gave so much difficulty to him, he did not direct another film until 1970 when he did Checkov's THE THREE SISTERS.

But the film has it's period charms and a literate script. It does capture the brittle social and diplomatic world of 1911 quite well. Olivier's Regent is not as great a part as Richard III or Hamlet or Othello, but he does have a grasp on the man's pride and sense of self-importance. Monroe does come across as intelligent regarding family matters (i.e. the Regent and his son, the King), as well as an understanding woman. Wattis shoulders the dignity of the foreign office ruffled by the crazy duties he has to shoulder that week. Sybil Thorndike, with her fears of anarchists, and belief that Elsie is a close friend of Sarah Bernhart, is in a peculiar portion of the universe. She carries off an eccentric royal type that is light years away from her aged, vicious crone in BRITTANIA MEWS. It was not a major film - certainly not in the same category as the three Olivier Shakespeare films, but it is a good minor one.