Le prince et le pauvre

Excellent adaptation of Mark Twain's story about a young prince and a lookalike beggar boy who trade places. The duo are played by real-life twins Billy and Bobby Mauch. They're both very good. Despite receiving top billing, it's nearly an hour in before Errol Flynn shows up. He's lots of fun as you might expect. Claude Rains is great as the villainous Earl of Hertford. He doesn't really get to have scenes with Flynn, however. Fine WB supporting cast includes Alan Hale, Barton MacLane, Henry Stephenson, and Halliwell Hobbes. Spirited, fun adventure story. Despite the length, it never drags. Nice music score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Definitely worth checking out.

Mark Twain was a man who sometimes could not get a notion out of his head. He loved the issue of twins and switching births. It pervades much of his fiction, and few seem to comment on it. In one of his early sketches he tells an inquisitive reporter that the tragedy of his life was the strange death of his twin - the boy had one only one mark on his body that differs him from his brother - Twain shows it to the reporter on his own person, and says that was the boy who supposedly died mysteriously and was buried. The reporter leaves after that tidbit.

Of course the novel (which became the subject of this film and several others) is the one that people think of as Twain's "twins switching" story. It isn't. He would write (in the 1880s) a piece called "Those Amazing Twins" about a pair of Italian Siamese twins. The piece (which is not one of his best) became part of the germination that led to his last great Mississippi novel "Pudd'nhead Wilson". He separates the twin Italians into two twin brother Italian counts who turn up in the Mississippi town where the action goes. He also takes the "switched at birth" motif and uses it in the main story of Chambers the slave switched by his mother Roxey with young Tom Driscoll the wealthy heir.

Twins pop up too in "Tom Sawyer Detective" - which was based on an old 17th Century Danish murder case involving twins.

But it's "The Prince And The Pauper" (1876) that is recalled as Twain's "twin story". I think it's because the other pieces are minor or (like Wilson) full of other interesting small matters - like the business of the use of fingerprints to settle the mysteries of the plot (a first in 1894). Here it is central to Twain's looking at an appalling, inequitable social system in Tudor England.

Henry VIII is dying and his son Edward, Prince of Wales is aware that he is going to soon lose his wise father and take over the reins of government. Of course the truth is he is still too young (in 1547 he is only 11) and he really can only rule in his own right when he reaches adult age (presumably 21). He will need a "Protector" and the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Herford are the leading contenders.

In the film wise old Henry Stephenson is Norfolk and crafty, power-seeking Claude Rains is Hertford. Henry (Montague Love) appoints both to the governing counsel, but does not name Norfolk over Hertford (or the reverse). So Rains starts jockeying for position in a confrontation with England's premier Duke.

In reality it was more complicated. Norfolk was on the outs with Henry in 1547 (he was facing execution - his son the Earl of Surrey was executed the year before - but Henry's own death saved Norfolk). The two contenders were the Duke of Somerset (Edward Seymour), blood uncle to Edward VI through his mother, and John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, who dreamed of placing the Dudley family and the Tudors permanently together by marrying the three Tudor heiresses, Princesses Mary and Elizabeth, and Lady Jane Grey, to his sons. One day this plan would blow up in his face (see TUDOR ROSE). Somerset's doom was tied to a similar hair-brained scheme of his brother Admiral Sir Thomas Seymour regarding marrying Princess Elizabeth (see YOUNG BESS).

Edward, in Twain's story, while waiting for the sad news, meets Tom Canty, a boy who looks almost exactly like him (here played - for a change - by the Mauch Twins). As a lark they change clothes so each can see how the other half live. Tom is soon over his head, causing his cousin Jane to question his sanity, and revealing enough to Hertford to realize that the false-King is his own key to power. Edward is unfortunately forced to endure the poverty of Tom's social class, but also the brutality of Tom's father John Canty (Barton McLaine) who is a professional thief. But Edward is soon helped by a young squire, Miles Herndon (Errol Flynn) who is trying to return to his ancestral home to regain his possessions from a greedy brother.

The twisty plot did show much of the underside of English Tudor living that many of the other early Tudor history films barely touched on (except to show the intrigues at court). It also had plenty of humor - look at the business about the usefulness of "the Great Seal of England", which is typical Twain humor. I feel this version of the story is quite good - possibly the best of the different versions of the novel that have reached the screen.

Bobby Mauch and Billy Mauch are "The Prince and the Pauper," a 1937 film based on the Mark Twain story. The film also stars Errol Flynn and Claude Rains. When Tom, the pauper, is caught by the guards, the young Prince sees a playmate in him and invites him in. They change clothes so that the Prince can go and get his dog from the kennel for their next game, but he's caught by the cruel guards who think he's the pauper. This leaves the hapless Tom stuck in the palace as a prince who is about to become king any minute. He has a protector forced upon him, the Earl of Hertford (Rains), who does not have the best interests of the English people in mind.

While he's in Tom's world, Prince Edward gets a good look at the horrible way the English people are forced to live because of bad laws. Eventually he meets Miles Hendon (Flynn) who saves him from Tom's wretched father. The question is, once Hendon is convinced that he's in the presence of the true King, can he get him to the coronation before the beggar is crowned? This is a wonderfully fun movie, filled with the meanest of the mean in Alan Hale as a palace guard, Barton MacLane as Tom's father, and the diabolical, unfeeling Earl. All are very convincing. The twins are delightful. As for Errol Flynn, he's as dashing and charming as ever as he wields a sword and rides a horse. A great cast and a marvelous film for the whole family. Highly recommended.

The Prince and the Pauper is a charming and witty film. Errol Flynn, although appearing a little late in the film, gives a great performance as an adventurer who protects what he believes is a delusional boy. The Mauch twins, Billy and Bobby, are perfect foils for Flynn, who's interaction with the Prince of England is touching, warm and comedic. As usual with Flynn's films Erich Wolfgang Korngold's music is brilliant, weaving a childlike main theme with an undercurrent of adventure. Every time you hear the score one almost picture a child giggling, while playing hide-and seek. It is one of Korngold's least known scores, but it is a gem. Flynn was a tragic figure, a larger then life adventurer and lover who 's reputation, after death, naturally, was smeared by a several books, now proved to be false. Truly, a man born in the wrong century. There is no actor capable of pulling off what Flynn did in his hay day. He has been largely ignored by Hollywood. Hypocrites, I think might be an appropriate term to attach to today's Academy moguls. A rake, drunk and scalawag? Yes. But he was the guy who has a least a half dozen classics that have stood the test of time. Unfortunately, the Prince and the Pauper is rarely seen on TV nowadays. A shame. Where would we Walter Mitty's be without the last of the true swashbucklers?

The family movie in all its splendor !although it's basically" an Errol Flynn movie," it's a long time before the famous handsome actor appears and anyway the real stars of the movie are the sensational Mauch Twins.

Based on a novel which tells an implausible story (but didn't Alexandre Dumas do the same in the "vicomte de Bragelonne " in which the Sun King had a twin too?), with a moral full of wisdom : the taxes on the windows is a theft,says the would be king,because the air and the sun do not belong to us; the royal seal ,which can send people to the scaffold is ridiculed and used as nutcracker; when he visits the dregs of the society ,the would be beggar discovers the sufferings of his people . His protector is foot loose and fancy free and does not care a little bit for the honors or the mountain of things the young king wants to offer .

Billy Mauch,dressed in royal clothings , is at first completely lost in this unknown world of luxury , but he regains strength when he discovers his court's greed (of which the old king Henry- colorful Montagu Love - was aware )Robert is particularly moving when he says her "our father " prayer before a traitor who wants to do away with him .

Fleischer 's color remake (1977) is fine ,but the black and white Twain adaptation was not surpassed.