The Student Prince (film)
Encyclopedia
The Student Prince is a 1954 CinemaScope
color film musical featuring, as the credits read, "the singing voice of Mario Lanza
". Lanza had become embroiled in a bitter dispute with MGM during production and the studio dismissed him. Under the terms of the settlement with Lanza, MGM retained the film rights to the soundtrack that Lanza had already recorded. The songs from this film (including "Beloved" - written specially for the movie - and the well-remembered "Serenade", from the original show) would become some of those most identified with Lanza, even though they were mouthed in the film by Edmund Purdom
, who took over the role of Prince Karl. Ann Blyth
starred as Kathie. Blyth had played opposite Lanza in the 1951 blockbuster The Great Caruso
.
The film also featured John Ericson
, Louis Calhern
, Edmund Gwenn
, S.Z. Sakall
, Betta St. John
, John Williams
, Evelyn Varden
and John Hoyt
.
The film was directed by Richard Thorpe
(who replaced the original director, Curtis Bernhardt
) and produced by Joe Pasternak
. The screenplay
was by Sonya Levien
and William Ludwig and was based on the operetta The Student Prince
by Sigmund Romberg
and Dorothy Donnelly
. New scenes and rewritten dialogue not found in the stage production were also added, although the basic plot remained the same. Additional songs were specially written by Nicholas Brodszky and Paul Francis Webster
. Many of Ms. Donnelly's original stage lyrics were completely changed for the film.
had become possible on records, another recording with Lanza was issued. But rather than simply reissuing the original soundtrack in stereo (which would have been possible since the movie was filmed using 4-track stereo, and stereo albums were released starting in 1958), RCA recorded an all-new studio cast album of the score, and the role of Kathie was sung by soprano Norma Giusti. The original Dorothy Donnelly lyrics were restored to this album. Both the 1954 and 1959 albums, however, also included the three additional songs written specially for the film version, and both albums omit the solo for Kathie, "Come Boys".
Karl has been raised most of his life for the military, but when it comes time for him to marry, the princess picked for him can't stand his stiff formality. This would not be such a problem but for the fact that Karlsburg has no money, only good blood. His tutor recommends that he be sent to University to learn "charm" and essentially develop some social skills. He (eventually) slips into the social mix, becomes accepted as a "good chap" by his student peers, and falls deeply in love with Kathie, a pretty, popular, and musically inclined barmaid, who holds "court" in the local biergarten. Love notwithstanding, when his old grandfather passes on unexpectedly, the young Prince must turn his back on the girl and marry the princess, while taking his place in the small Kingdom that he's been preordained to rule. He returns for one more visit to Heidelberg, and bids Kathie a poignant farewell.
The parallel subplot of the Princess being in love with Count Tarnitz, whom she cannot marry, was completely omitted from the film.
CinemaScope
CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...
color film musical featuring, as the credits read, "the singing voice of Mario Lanza
Mario Lanza
right|thumb|[[MGM]] still, circa 1949Mario Lanza was an American tenor and Hollywood movie star of the late 1940s and the 1950s. The son of Italian emigrants, he began studying to be a professional singer at the age of 16....
". Lanza had become embroiled in a bitter dispute with MGM during production and the studio dismissed him. Under the terms of the settlement with Lanza, MGM retained the film rights to the soundtrack that Lanza had already recorded. The songs from this film (including "Beloved" - written specially for the movie - and the well-remembered "Serenade", from the original show) would become some of those most identified with Lanza, even though they were mouthed in the film by Edmund Purdom
Edmund Purdom
Edmund Anthony Cutlar Purdom was a British actor.-Early life:Purdom was born in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England and educated at St. Augustine's Abbey School, Ramsgate, then by the Jesuits at St. Ignatius Grammar School and Welwyn Garden City Grammar School...
, who took over the role of Prince Karl. Ann Blyth
Ann Blyth
Ann Marie Blyth is an American actress and singer, often cast in Hollywood musicals, but also successful in dramatic roles. Her performance as Veda Pierce in the 1945 film Mildred Pierce was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.-Life and career:Blyth was born in Mount Kisco,...
starred as Kathie. Blyth had played opposite Lanza in the 1951 blockbuster The Great Caruso
The Great Caruso
The Great Caruso is a 1951 biographical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Joe Pasternak with Jesse L. Lasky as associate producer from a screenplay by Sonya Levien and William Ludwig. The original music was by Johnny Green and the cinematography by...
.
The film also featured John Ericson
John Ericson (Actor)
John Ericson is a German-American actor and film and television star....
, Louis Calhern
Louis Calhern
Louis Calhern was an American stage and screen actor.- Early life :Louis Calhern was born Carl Henry Vogt on February 19, 1895 in Brooklyn, New York. His family left New York City while he was still a child and moved to St. Louis, Missouri where he grew up...
, Edmund Gwenn
Edmund Gwenn
Edmund Gwenn was an English theatre and film actor.-Background:Born Edmund John Kellaway in Wandsworth, London , and educated at St. Olave's School and later at King's College London, Gwenn began his acting career in the theatre in 1895...
, S.Z. Sakall
S.Z. Sakall
Szőke Szakáll , known as S.Z. Sakall, was a Hungarian film character actor. He was in many films including In the Good Old Summertime, Lullaby of Broadway, Christmas in Connecticut and Casablanca in which he played Carl, the head waiter.Chubby-jowled Sakall played numerous supporting roles in...
, Betta St. John
Betta St. John
Betta St. John is an American actress, singer and dancer.Born as Betty Jean Striegler, St. John made her film debut at the age of ten in Destry Rides Again and as an orphan in Jane Eyre . She was discovered by Rodgers and Hammerstein and played a small role in the Broadway musical, Carousel in 1945...
, John Williams
John Williams
John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
, Evelyn Varden
Evelyn Varden
Evelyn Varden was an American actress.Evelyn Varden had a long and distinguished career on Broadway despite starring in the ill-fated Return Engagement by Lawrence Riley...
and John Hoyt
John Hoyt
John Hoyt was an American film, stage, and television actor.-Early life:Hoyt was born John McArthur Hoysradt. Before becoming an actor with Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre, the Yale University graduate worked as a history instructor, acting teacher and even a nightclub comedian...
.
The film was directed by Richard Thorpe
Richard Thorpe
Richard Thorpe was an American film director.Born Rollo Smolt Thorpe in Hutchinson, Kansas, he began his entertainment career performing in vaudeville and onstage. In 1921 he began in motion pictures as an actor and directed his first silent film in 1923. He went on to direct more than one hundred...
(who replaced the original director, Curtis Bernhardt
Curtis Bernhardt
Curtis Bernhardt was a German film director born in Worms, Germany, under the name Kurt Bernhardt. Some of his American films were called "woman's films" including the Joan Crawford film Possessed . Bernhardt trained as an actor in Germany, and performed on the stage, before starting as a film...
) and produced by Joe Pasternak
Joe Pasternak
thumb|right|250px|Pasterrnak receiving his star on [[Hollywood Boulevard]] from [[Johnny Grant |Johnny Grant]] with [[Gene Kelly]] on the left on July 29, 1991....
. The screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
was by Sonya Levien
Sonya Levien
Sonya Levien was a Russian screenwriter. She wrote for 72 films between 1921 and 1962. She won the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay in 1955 for the film Interrupted Melody....
and William Ludwig and was based on the operetta The Student Prince
The Student Prince
The Student Prince is an operetta in four acts with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Dorothy Donnelly. It is based on Wilhelm Meyer-Förster's play Alt Heidelberg. The piece has elements of melodrama but lacks the swashbuckling style common to Romberg's other works...
by Sigmund Romberg
Sigmund Romberg
Sigmund Romberg was a Hungarian-born American composer, best known for his operettas.-Biography:Romberg was born as Siegmund Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Gross-Kanizsa during the Austro-Hungarian kaiserlich und königlich monarchy period...
and Dorothy Donnelly
Dorothy Donnelly
Dorothy Donnelly was a stage actress, playwright, producer, librettist, and lyricist. She made famous the play Madame X on the Broadway stage in 1910 and in a 1916 silent film, the first filming of the story...
. New scenes and rewritten dialogue not found in the stage production were also added, although the basic plot remained the same. Additional songs were specially written by Nicholas Brodszky and Paul Francis Webster
Paul Francis Webster
Paul Francis Webster was an American lyricist who won three Academy Awards for Best Song and was nominated sixteen times for the award.-Biography:...
. Many of Ms. Donnelly's original stage lyrics were completely changed for the film.
Albums made from the film
Lanza made two recordings of the songs from the movie - the first was a genuine film soundtrack recording, in mono. In 1959, after stereoSTEREO
STEREO is a solar observation mission. Two nearly identical spacecraft were launched into orbits that cause them to respectively pull farther ahead of and fall gradually behind the Earth...
had become possible on records, another recording with Lanza was issued. But rather than simply reissuing the original soundtrack in stereo (which would have been possible since the movie was filmed using 4-track stereo, and stereo albums were released starting in 1958), RCA recorded an all-new studio cast album of the score, and the role of Kathie was sung by soprano Norma Giusti. The original Dorothy Donnelly lyrics were restored to this album. Both the 1954 and 1959 albums, however, also included the three additional songs written specially for the film version, and both albums omit the solo for Kathie, "Come Boys".
Plot
A young Prince, Karl, from a small sub-kingdom of the German Empire near the turn of the 20th century is sent off to get a university education in Heidelberg, Baden-Wuerttemberg. His grandfather was one of a handful of petty kings within German and Austrian central Europe. Fictional Karlsburg was small but very proud of their nationhood and traditions.Karl has been raised most of his life for the military, but when it comes time for him to marry, the princess picked for him can't stand his stiff formality. This would not be such a problem but for the fact that Karlsburg has no money, only good blood. His tutor recommends that he be sent to University to learn "charm" and essentially develop some social skills. He (eventually) slips into the social mix, becomes accepted as a "good chap" by his student peers, and falls deeply in love with Kathie, a pretty, popular, and musically inclined barmaid, who holds "court" in the local biergarten. Love notwithstanding, when his old grandfather passes on unexpectedly, the young Prince must turn his back on the girl and marry the princess, while taking his place in the small Kingdom that he's been preordained to rule. He returns for one more visit to Heidelberg, and bids Kathie a poignant farewell.
The parallel subplot of the Princess being in love with Count Tarnitz, whom she cannot marry, was completely omitted from the film.