Le prisonnier de Zenda

This movie is only saved by the brilliant performance by Peter Sellers, the rest of the film are bad and repetitive jokes. Its a good film to see the genius of Sellers, but you'll have to suffer the movie.

The 1979 remake of Hope's Zenda story is a prime example of the sort of poor judgement Peter Sellers was so often subject to in his choice of films. The whole thing is roundly dispiriting to watch, and "palpably uneasy" as Halliwell's Film Guide comments. The script lacks any sense of the comic or adventurous that one would expect of a Zenda filming with Sellers. So often, exaggeration and chatter take the place of any sort of acting. Even Sellers, often impressive in such bad films, creates two very uninteresting characters, based it seems, solely on the rather stereotypical voices he creates for them. Other performances pass by, indistinguishable from each other and unwanted. John Laurie has nothing to do whatsoever, the token females are particularly dull... the whole thing is completely pointless and all too far from being enjoyable... Most certainly as bad, if not worse than the more derided "The Fiendish Plot of Fu Manchu". Rating:- */*****

This is pretty fun, there is a lot of things going on that become garbled especially toward the latter from the plot like badguys switching to be good guys suddenly? This is cancelled by the nonstop narrative that just becomes action of people battling and all that stuff and it is here there is a vortex of hypnotism as you just follow this narrative without thought but just action. As I check this I keep thinking this must be a mid-60s movie and am surprised to check the release here. If you like candlelit castle locales at night well this movie is for you.

Prisoner of Zenda should have much to be proud of: nice music by Henry Mancini, good dual performance by Peter Sellers and gorgeous-looking cinematography and impressive sets and locations.

Unfortunately, all this adds to nothing. The film is as if it were written seriously with the screenwriters assuming that it could be turned into a comedy simply by having Gregory Sierra overact and bulge his eyeballs every now and then and the rest of the cast move about in a humorous way. But it doesn't work that way, even Sellers cannot inject enough comedy into this film(in fact, much unlike Sierra, he is slightly underplaying his roles, which is good).

In the end, one gets the impression that the team had a large amount of money and a good cast, but didn't know what to do with them.

This must be one of his best movies. The movie was made on location in Austria. The Castle in Vienna is the real Schoenbrunn castle where the empire of the Habsburg monarchy ruled for almost a 1000 years. The sets are original and outstanding. Peter Sellers played a double role where he plays a London cab driver (coachman) Sydney Frewin who is a look a like of the crown prince Rudolf of Rurotania who's brother wants to get rid of him and take on the crown himself after the death of their father. The movie starts when the King dies celebrating his 80tiest birthday in a balloon. When he accidentally punctures his balloon with a cork from his Champaign bottle, plummets to the ground, his balloon gets tangled up onto a tree in a village square and then he finally falls into the well below while giving a speech to the locals from the tree in the balloon. Crown prince Rudolf's spends most of his time in the London Saloons but he must return to Rurtania where his life is in danger. The London cab driver, Sydney Freud is accidentally discovered as look a like by the crown princes assistant and send ahead to Rurotania as a decoy. Sydney Freud is unaware of the real reason why he was offered a good position in Rurotania till he arrives there. Prince Rudolf has an affair with a beautiful countess. When her husband the count discovers this he is also after the crown prince. As the real prince gets kidnapped, Sydney takes his place till the real prince can be recovered. Sydney can not understand at first why the count is always after him wanting to slit his throat.. There is too much to tell but the movie has a happy ending where Sydney Frewin becomes the King and the princess gets the man she really loves. The real crown prince Rudolf goes back to London this time as Sydney Freud where he does what he loves best. Visiting the London gambling clubs and maintaining his affair with the countess. Great family entertainment! The only bad thing about this movie is that it's not available.