Il principe studente

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.

Freed from the strictures of the Karlsburg royal palace to attend University, THE STUDENT PRINCE IN OLD HEIDELBERG experiences true love for the first time.

This wonderful, exuberant, heartbreaking film - one of the last major movies of the Silent Era - is a scintillating example of the artistry of director Ernst Lubitsch. Filled with wry humor & aching pathos, Lubitsch tells a tale which is a persuasive paean to the power of the talkless film.

MGM had great faith in this movie & gave it excellent production values, with crowds of extras and picture-perfect sets & costumes. Based in part on the Wilhelm Meyer-Förster novel & the operetta by Sigmund Romberg, the film revels in romanticism.

Ramon Novarro, always eager to please his audience, brings great charm to the title role. Although about 10 years too old to be playing a typical university freshman, he nonetheless brings tremendous enthusiasm to the role. It was this essential boyishness which encouraged MGM to continue giving him roles which were too young for him (in 1932's HUDDLE he would play a Yale freshman). The Studio also insisted on giving their Mexican star a wide range of ethnic parts, everything from Chinese to Arab. He played them all well, but none better than here in STUDENT PRINCE. It is a shame that Hollywood would not reciprocate by giving him topnotch assignments.

Norma Shearer is radiant as Kathi, the vivacious & lovely barmaid who is beloved by the Prince. She gives a wonderful performance in what was considered a breakthrough role for her. She married MGM executive Irving Thalberg the same year STUDENT PRINCE was released and her stardom at the Studio was firmly established. She earned her celebrity through hard work and honest talent, however, not by noodling with the boss.

Jean Hersholt, as the Prince's gentle tutor, puts his own stamp on the kind of sympathetic role with which he would become associated. Miles removed from his villainous portrayals in TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY (1922) or GREED (1925), Hersholt here is the very embodiment of benevolence.

Gustav von Seyffertitz as the cold King, Edmund Connelly as the stern Prime Minister & Bobby Mack as an old rustic retainer all add very fine support. Movie mavens will recognize Lionel Belmore as a boisterous student & Charles K. Arthur as a drowsy inebriate, both unbilled.

Carl Davis supplied one of his typically bravura scores for the home video reissue of the film. He conducts the English Chamber Orchestra.

While Karlsburg is a fictitious Teutonic kingdom, Heidelberg is a very real city located in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. As ancient capital of the Rhenish Palatinate, its electoral counts - always a branch of the Wittelsbach royal family of Bavaria - played a significant role in the history of both the Holy Roman Empire and Central Europe. Although originally Roman Catholic, political vicissitudes brought about a change to Protestantism centuries ago. Heidelberg University was founded in 1386 by Count Rupert I & chartered the same year by Pope Urban VI. After a period of dissolution, it was revitalized in the 19th Century as a center of the sciences, law & philosophy. Town & gown are both overlooked by Heidelberg Castle, one of Europe's mightiest fortresses, where it sits on its hill 330 feet above the Neckar River. Its cellars contains the fabled Heidelberg Tun, a prodigious 18th Century wine cask capable of holding 49,000 gallons - surely a source of wonder to the Student Prince & his classmates...

Crown Prince Karl Heinrich (Ramon Novarro) hates being a prince. He can't go out and mingle or meet other people because of his station. He goes to Heidelberg to study. There he meets beautiful bar maid Kathi (Norma Shearer) and falls madly in love. She loves him too..but he can't marry beneath his station in life...

Just stunning silent film. You watch the screen mesmerized by how beautiful it is. It's wonderfully directed by Ernst Lubitsch with some truly incredible images but it's Novarro and Shearer who carry this film. He's unbearably handsome--she's just incredibly beautiful. Together they look like perfection and both give superb performances - I believed they were in love completely! There's a just incredible sequence on a starlit night in a field of flowers. All kidding aside, it was so beautiful you could almost cry! It all leads to a tragic but realistic ending. Just simply a must-see movie. Don't miss this one!

Ernst Lubitsch's silent films are as graceful and enchanting as his sound pictures, but the director's silents are unfairly left in the corner and don't always get the distinction they truly deserve. Along with "Lady Windermere's Fan" and "The Marriage Circle", this heartbreaking silent classic is one of Lubitsch's most perfect and poignant American silent films.

"The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg"(surviving copies only say " Old Heidelberg") is a very moving and heartbreaking love story and pretty much in the best Lubitsch tradition of subtle, graceful, witty romantic comedy, tinged with an air of sadness and poignancy, much like what you see in the later Lubitsch sound masterworks like "The Shop Around the Corner", "Heaven Can Wait", and "Cluny Brown". Norma Shearer gives what could be her greatest and most satisfying silent performance as Kathi, a popular barmaid with fraternal students and townsfolk in the quasi-mythical university town of Heidelberg. Ramon Novaro is superb as her prince charming, the student prince who falls in love with her.

If you liked this one, I recommend Lubitsch's other great silent love story from this period, the rarely seen and appreciated "Eternal Love."

This a delightful film full of humanistic touches-- from young Prince Karl's playful relationship with his good-natured mentor, Dr. Juttner, his carousing and drinking with the students in Old Heidelberg, to his paddling upon lakes and taking mad carriage rides with the beautiful barmaid, Kathy-- it's all at once side-stitchingly funny, bittersweet, romantic and a nostalgic tribute to youth and young love. The film is made with such a deft touch that, to the end where Prince Karl returns to visit Heidelberg, it never becomes schmaltzy. It is consistently charming and ends on a pitch perfect note. A real crowd pleaser. Highly recommended.