All the King's Horses

Hollywood star Carl Brisson is visiting his homeland of Langenstein. He is commanded to a private audience with the King, also played by Carl Brisson. The Queen, Mary Ellis, has been complaining that the King's beard scratches and Carl talks Carl into shaving it off. Waddayaknow, they're twins! The King decides to take a vacation in Vienna as the star, accompanied by Edward Everett Horton (surely not everyone's first choice). The star masquerades as the King, while his manager, Eugene Pallette balances the budget. The Queen, not being in on the gag, is pleased with her non-scratching consort.

It's an agreeable potpourri of operetta, Ruritanian romance and colatura singing by Miss Ellis, who had starred at the Metropolitan opera before she decided it was easier to be a straight actress. Mr. Brisson was also a good choice for a role that might have gone to Chevalier a year or two earlier. Although he is best remembered for being in a couple of late silent Hitchcock movies and being Rosalind Russell's father-in-law, he had begin as a song-and-dance man in Denmark, and his big number at the end, "Dancing the Viennese", got choreographer Leroy Prinz an Oscar nomination.

It's a pleasant and unremarkable piece of fluff that did no one's career any particular good or harm. Brisson and Ellis returned to the stage. Director Frank Tuttle continued working for another quarter of a century, including helming Alan Ladd's breakout film. I enjoyed it.

The plot for "All the King's Horses" is one that sounds enjoyable and should have been. Sadly, however, even with so much promise, the film failed to deliver.

King Rudolf XIV of Langenstein is having problems with Queen Elaine. He's all work and no play...and finally, in disgust, she has left him. When the King learns that there is an actor who is his spitting image (an overused and silly plot device...though it worked well in films such as "The Prisoner of Zenda"), he sends for Carlo. The pair meet and decide to switch lives for a bit. The new King makes a lot of reforms which tick off the elite but soon the Queen has returned and loves the new husband. In the meantime, the real King hangs out in Vienna.

There are two huge problems. The biggest are the incredible number of songs in this movie. This plot does NOT lend itself to singing and with so many songs, there isn't enough room for the story. Second, why did they pick the Danish actor Carl Brisson for the role? I occasionally had a hard time understanding his accent...closed captions would have helped. Overall, a decent idea for a story that simply had too many distractions and not enough time to develop the plot.

The music in this film is a cut above what you might expect. What makes it memorable is due to the song "A Little White Gardenia" which was sung a number of times by Carl Brisson and Mary Ellis. He was an acknowledged singer, but whether she did her own singing, I can not say, except it was more than adequate