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La princesse amoureuse

Original title: The Royal Bed
  • 1931
  • Not Rated
  • 1h 15m
IMDb RATING
5.8/10
275
YOUR RATING
Mary Astor, Anthony Bushell, and Lowell Sherman in La princesse amoureuse (1931)
SatireComedy

More interested in playing checkers with the servants than in governing his people, King Eric VIII is dominated by Martha, his queen, a humorless woman who believes in doing her royal duty a... Read allMore interested in playing checkers with the servants than in governing his people, King Eric VIII is dominated by Martha, his queen, a humorless woman who believes in doing her royal duty above all else. Her daughter, Princess Anne, however, loves commoner Freddie Granton, the k... Read allMore interested in playing checkers with the servants than in governing his people, King Eric VIII is dominated by Martha, his queen, a humorless woman who believes in doing her royal duty above all else. Her daughter, Princess Anne, however, loves commoner Freddie Granton, the king's secretary, and refuses to marry her mother's political choice, the foppish Prince Wi... Read all

  • Director
    • Lowell Sherman
  • Writers
    • Robert E. Sherwood
    • J. Walter Ruben
  • Stars
    • Lowell Sherman
    • Mary Astor
    • Anthony Bushell
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.8/10
    275
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Lowell Sherman
    • Writers
      • Robert E. Sherwood
      • J. Walter Ruben
    • Stars
      • Lowell Sherman
      • Mary Astor
      • Anthony Bushell
    • 12User reviews
    • 1Critic review
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos7

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    Top cast18

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    Lowell Sherman
    Lowell Sherman
    • King Eric VIII
    Mary Astor
    Mary Astor
    • Princess Anne
    Anthony Bushell
    Anthony Bushell
    • Freddie Granton
    Hugh Trevor
    Hugh Trevor
    • Crown Prince William of Grec
    Nance O'Neil
    Nance O'Neil
    • Queen Martha
    Robert Warwick
    Robert Warwick
    • Premier Northrup - Prime Minister
    Gilbert Emery
    Gilbert Emery
    • Phipps
    Alan Roscoe
    Alan Roscoe
    • Marquis of Birten
    Frederick Burt
    • Doctor Fellman
    J. Carrol Naish
    J. Carrol Naish
    • Laker
    • (as Carrol Naish)
    Nancy Lee Blaine
    • Lady in Waiting
    Lita Chevret
    Lita Chevret
    • Lady in Waiting
    Desmond Roberts
    Desmond Roberts
    • Major Blent
    Mischa Auer
    Mischa Auer
    • Grecian Ambassador
    • (uncredited)
    Francis X. Bushman Jr.
    Francis X. Bushman Jr.
    • Guest at Grand Ball
    • (uncredited)
    Estelle Etterre
    Estelle Etterre
    • Lady in Waiting to Princess Anne
    • (uncredited)
    Eric Mayne
    Eric Mayne
    • Guest at Grand Ball
    • (uncredited)
    Betty Recklaw
    Betty Recklaw
    • Lady in Waiting to Princess Anne
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Lowell Sherman
    • Writers
      • Robert E. Sherwood
      • J. Walter Ruben
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews12

    5.8275
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    Featured reviews

    5cgvsluis

    A father is sympathetic to his Royal daughter's wish to marry for love not obligation.

    Lowell Sherman and Mary Astor are the best parts of this film...them and maybe the spectacular wedding dress with Veil and the Queen's crown!

    This was a film based on a play and during some moments that was obvious, probably more than it should be.

    The heart of this story is about a royal Princess Anne, played by Astor, who wants to marry a commoner, Freddie, but her mother the queen has promised her off to the Crown Prince William.

    Before their wedding...a peasant uprisings occurs (which I found very strange and unnecessary for the plot). Princess Anne could have gone off and married Freddie with her father's blessing...but she couldn't leave her father alone while the palace was under attack do she stays...which means marrying the Crown Prince when her mother returns...or does it?

    The best part really is Sherman and Astor...they breathe wonderful life into the father and daughter relationship that is the only part of the film worthy of watching.
    4holdencopywriting

    Overlong and not particularly funny

    Royal Bed is watchable, but only just. I think it was intended to be a farce, but it doesn't have the pacing or the wit necessary for good farce. It's a one-joke film that goes on much, much too long. None of the actors stands out, and many of them fade right into the woodwork. The set and set decoration are mediocre and lack the necessary pomp and circumstance for a film set in a palace. The costume designer succeeds in providing overblown and farcical costumes for the men (many with baggy jackets topping ridiculously tight pegleg trousers). However, the costume designer fails to provide the right farcical tone with the women's costumes. Astor wears a cute riding outfit complete with jodhpurs in the early part of the film, and then later a gorgeous wedding dress. The queen (who is supposed to be that stock character of farce--an interfering busybody) wears several wonderful outfits including a half-length fur stole over a classic walking dress, and a taffeta gown with a gloriously regal train. Overall, I give Royal Bed a 4 out of 10.
    zpzjones

    Hard to find melodrama about Royal Kingdom

    This is an early talkie by RKO based on a Broadway play by Robert Sherwood. I caught it one night on the late show on a Baltimore station. Sadly this station doesn't play these old/early sound movies as Turner Classics owns them all now. Needless to say this movie is a spoof or sendup of the trials and tribulations of a European Kingdom teetering on the brink of collapse. This kingdom is at war with it's own people, with neighboring countries as well as suffering from internal intrigue in the court. Director Sherman, in my opinion, is seemingly warming himself up for Becky Sharp three to four years later. There's a scene in Royal Bed in which General Northup(Robert Warwick wonderfully melodramatic)goes to a window of the court and says of his own army: "the stupid artillery, they're shooting the wrong way". Hilarious when you watch it. For fans of Becky Sharp(1935) there's a similar sequence as Rawdon Crawley stands by a window ... and it's filmed in color. Lowell Sherman well past 40 at this time had been acting in theatre since he was a child. He may be remembered today by some buffs as the villain in DW Griffith's silent "Way Down EA(1920) and for other silent films. Little remembered about Sherman is that he was an up & coming director of light, sophisticated, witty comedies in the early 1930s. Royal Bed is one, "Bachelor Apartment" still another as well "High Stakes", "The Pay Off" and one of Katharine Hepburn's earliest films "Morning Glory". This must have seemed natural for Sherman who had spent decades acting on the Broadway stage in this same kind of fare. As fate would have it Sherman was to die in 1934 just as he was hitting his stride... and while he began Becky Sharp, Rouben Mamoulian would end up completing it.

    Sherman plays the lead in Royal Bed as the King, Nance O'Neil his discerning wife The Queen, Mary Astor their daughter, the wonderful Robert Warwick(later in Sullivan's Travels and numerous others)as the pompous General Northup and a host of characters. Basically the King is a softy. He's intimidated by his high ranking officials such as Northup. And also by his wife who seems to have been betrothed to the King decades earlier in an arranged marriage. Sherman's tender scenes are with his daughter Mary Astor. Her mother and General Northup want her to enter an arranged marriage so as to make the country look good. And Northup would gain more feathers in his cap so to speak. The girl wants out of the arranged marriage to a fop of an aristocrat. She eventually gets to marry the man she loves, her father's male secretary, after cooing him over. This disappoints her mother who decides to take a vacation to America on an ocean liner. Northup conspires to have the King deposed so that he can take over in a Coup. As the kingdom crumbles Sherman remains a calm and collected monarch eager to toss out one liners and play checkers with his butler. He's a down to earth monarch in a kingdom crying out for leadership.(Can't help wondering how much the recent history of the fall of the Romanovs influenced Sherwood as well as Sherman).

    This may be a forgotten little comedy. One of many by RKO. RKO wanted to capitalize off of the hit play. The melodrama aka over-acting may seem corny today. But not really. Melodrama can be fun for the audience. And for the actors quite tiring when you think about it. All of that energy to pronounce vowels and consonants in an exaggerated manner.The interacting between the actors is hilarious as they read their over-the-top dialogue. Robert Warwick's deep stage trained voice is so well recorded that he's my favorite character in this. This is not a bad 90 minutes of viewing. Turner may dust it off once in a while. That's where you'll likely see this and many other Sherman directed early talkies if they don't come to video or dvd.
    5bkoganbing

    Indifferent monarch

    The Royal Bed is a retitled version of one of Robert Sherwood's lesser known plays which as The Queen's Husband ran for 125 performances on Broadway in the 1928 season. Starring on Broadway as the most reluctant king was Roland Young playing the part Lowell Sherman does here.

    Sherman is essentially indifferent to the role of king, he'd just as soon abdicate and let Princess Mary Astor marry her heart's desire Anthony Bushell. But Queen Nance O'Neill likes the perks of being royalty so Sherman stays.

    The issue may get forced as there's revolution in the air and a most authoritarian army commander in Robert Warwick to put it down. At this point Sherman snaps out of his indolence and shows some statesmanship to set the ship of state right.

    Next to work like The Petrified Forest, Abe Lincoln In Illinois and Idiot's Delight this is most second rate Robert Sherwood. But it does get its satirical points across. Watch for a nice performance from Hugh Trevor as a visiting foreign prince scheduled to marry Mary Astor and as unhappy about the prospect as she is. Another tragedy as Trevor died soon after this film was released.

    There are some amusing moments. Lowell Sherman is fine in the role, but I can see how Roland Young would have fit this perfectly.
    5view_and_review

    Comical Nature Sorta Saved It

    Only the comical nature of this movie saved it from being completely insufferable. On the one hand we had the oppressed princess and on the other hand we had a down to earth and comical king.

    As for the princess, Princess Anne (Mary Astor), she was the typical oppressed princess. You know the one--she can't do anything she wants to do and she's being forced to marry someone she doesn't want to marry. Only if she were a common peasant then she'd be free.

    Gag.

    Oppression is oppression no matter who is being oppressed, but I still find it difficult to watch a princess complain about how terrible her life is, or how she'd prefer being a beggar over being a princess. It's language like that that makes rich and royalty so unrelatable.

    As for the king, King Eric VIII (Lowell Sherman), he was a solid dude. He loved his daughter, liked playing checkers with his palace guard, and was in favor of a republic. He was also in favor of his daughter running off and eloping with her secret lover, Freddie Granton (Anthony Bushell), the king's secretary. The king was in an untenable position that required some deft moves to navigate. He would have to use all of his wits to keep the peace, give his daughter what she wanted, and remain king at the same time. He did what he could and kept it funny all the while.

    Free with Amazon Prime.

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      Nancy Lee Blaine's only film.
    • Quotes

      Princess Anne: She's furious now because father is going out. Mother tries to boss everything - well, she not going to boss me! I'm not her husband. I'm going to lead my own life!

      Granton: And may I ask when do you intend to start?

      Princess Anne: As soon as she's safely on her trip to America. One of these days, Mother will pick up a New York paper and discover her daughter has eloped. You *are* going to elope with me, aren't you, Freddy?

      Granton: Oh yes, Anne. I wouldn't let you elope alone.

    • Crazy credits
      Opening card: Truly, there is no reason why all kings and queens should not be human beings, even though there is every reason why all human beings should not be kings and queens. ...... Louis XI
    • Connections
      Version of The Queen's Husband (1946)

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • January 15, 1931 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • The Royal Bed
    • Filming locations
      • RKO Studios - 780 N. Gower Street, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA(Studio)
    • Production company
      • RKO Radio Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 15 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White

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