O Príncipe e o Mendigo

I remember watching this in 3 parts on Walt Disney's Sunday night TV show in breathtaking black and white (we didn't have a color TV). Many of the Disney shows were theatrical quality, shot all over the world with international casts; something unique for that time period. One note: the trivia on the IMDb site claims this to be director Don Chaffey's final film. Not true. He remained working in film and TV until the late 80's, most memorably directing the original Jason and the Argonauts as well as Raquel Welch in One Million Years BC.

A film crew and actors arrived in County Meath, Donaghpatrick in the early 1960s. A thatched cottage with road and grass frontage (no wall or gate) was used. It was on a very quiet country road running parallel to the Blackwater river. (Half way between Navan and Kells). We think this was The Prince and the Pauper. Another local cottage was used as a make-up studio.

A cute classic and very well executed, tried to be the most faithful to the work, great setting and costumes, the original work served as social criticism, which works well here too, it seems that Erich Kästner the boy doesn't do as well as the girl Hayley Mills (Operation Cupid), which seems to be based on the same central idea, but we enjoyed with pleasure this great children's copy, fun and with beautiful messages...

Disney was really into hiring one child actor to play multiple roles. However, unlike their success in this in The Parent Trap films, Scully just isn't quite up to the task. Each of the boys is clearly written, but the layers of deception are lost under a doe-eyed dullness.

Given the stature of the studio today, it is easy to see what an outlier this was at the time. Produced overseas (so Walt was not in charge) and written as an uncertain combination of drama and/or musical, badly written, badly cast, badly acted, and badly directed. With a runtime of only 1:09. (Except of course for Williams, the one and only Zorro -- eat your heart out Anthony Hopkins).