Le prince et le pauvre

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.

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.

Disney fooled me and I thought that this was a theatrical production, so I watched it. This is actually a made for TV from the 1960s. But honestly, it doesn't differ much from their live-action of the time. There's a vague historical aspect, a lot of British actors, and a very out of place American accent. The story more or less sticks to the plot of The Mark Twain original, but it is done with more of a divine right of kings Flair. It is clear that the poor boy would make a better King, is making a better King, but he gives it all up when the real king returns from his adventures. It would have been a much better film if the boy had decided, i'm the king now take this Ruffian and throw them in the tower. The real King dies at the age of 15 which the film barely hits at, although they do suggest that his sister Mary was a fanatic. Although Elizabeth the first, barely mentioned and that's probably because this film was made during the early years of the reign of Elizabeth II.

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).