Prince of Players ** (1955, Richard Burton, Maggie McNamara, John Derek, Raymond Massey, Charles Bickford, Elizabeth Sellars, Eva Le Gallienne) – Classic Movie Review 12,029

When Prince of Players (1955) flopped, director Philip Dunne opined: ‘It was too larded with Shakespeare.’ But star Richard Burton blamed studio boss Darryl F Zanuck and his hacks for ‘murdering’ the script. 

Producer-director Philip Dunne’s 1955 20th Century Fox CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color biographical drama film Prince of Players is based on a book by Eleanor Ruggles about the 19th century American actor Edwin Booth, and stars Richard Burton, Maggie McNamara, John Derek, Raymond Massey, Charles Bickford, Elizabeth Sellars, and Eva Le Gallienne.

When it flopped, Philip Dunne opined: ‘It was too larded with Shakespeare.’ But Richard Burton blamed studio boss Darryl F Zanuck for ‘murdering’ the script. It is now a virtually forgotten film.

That prince of players Richard Burton turns in a sturdy performance in this intriguing but uneven and often ponderous film about the 19th-century American Shakespearean actor Edwin Thomas Booth (1833-93), the brother of Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth.

Prince of Players is interesting, and full of good performances by a top-flight cast, but the episodic, unwieldy nature of the screenplay and the unsteady, rather plodding handling drag it down.

It is okay as a display of what the young Burton could do as a Shakespearean actor, but too much of the movie is taken up with familiar bits from Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and Richard III, sidelining the real story. So maybe it is too larded with Shakespeare.

Richard Burton and Maggie McNamara in Prince of Players.

Also in the cast are Ian Keith, Mae Marsh, Sarah Padden, Lane Chandler, Steve Darrell, Stanley Hall, Henry Kulky, Jack Raine, William Walker, Ruth Warren, Ben Wright, Paul Strader, George Melford, Betty Flint, and Tom Fadden.

The film was based on a bestseller book by Eleanor Ruggles, published in February 1953. 20th Century Fox had already bought the film rights in January 1953. Though Laurence Olivier and Marlon Brando were considered, Richard Burton was always in the frame. Brando later said: ‘When Fox couldn’t get a top-rate actor like Laurence Olivier or me, they settled for a third-rate performer with even worse skin.’

Filming started in August 1954 and it was released on 11 January 1955. But the film was the first CinemaScope movie to flop. Dunne opined: ‘It was too larded with Shakespeare.’

On the recommendation of Moss Hart, legendary stage actress Eva Le Gallienne was hired as technical consultant In July 1954, and she agreed to act in the film as an actor, performing as Queen Gertrude in Hamlet in scenes with Burton, in her first film.

Dunne recalled: ‘I couldn’t find a director whom I thought could do justice to the script so [20th Century Fox boss Darryl F] Zanuck said “direct it yourself”.’

Richard Burton as Edwin Booth in Prince of Players.

In 1971 Richard Burton watched the film on TV and then wrote in his diary: ‘I remember the high hopes I had of that film and my disappointment at its indifferent reception. The original script by Moss Hart was very good when I agreed to do it but a year later when I actually did it had been murdered by Darryl F Zanuck [the 20th Century Fox boss] and his hacks. Some of it was salvageable, however, which accounts for what little success we had. It seems to me that I was outrageously pretty in those days and much prefer my present hard and ravaged countenance.’

Among the hacks who ‘murdered’ the script was an uncredited Samuel Fuller. Dunne was at work too, hacking Hart’s script by about half an hour by ‘cutting within scenes’.

Prince of Players is directed by Philip Dunne, runs 102 minutes, is made and released by 20th Century Fox, is written by Moss Hart, is shot in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color by Charles G Clarke, is produced by Philip Dunne, is scored by Bernard Herrmann, and designed by Lyle R Wheeler.

The main cast are Richard Burton as Edwin “Ned” Booth, Maggie McNamara as Mary Devlin, John Derek as John Wilkes Booth, Raymond Massey as Junius Brutus Booth, Charles Bickford as Dave Prescott, Elizabeth Sellars as Asia Booth, Christopher Cook as Edwin Booth at age 10, Dayton Lummis as English physician, Ian Keith as Ghost of Hamlet’s Father in Hamlet, Paul Stader as Laertes in Hamlet, Louis Alexander as John Booth at age 12, William Walker as Old Ben, Charles Cane as Theater Assistant, Mae Marsh as Witch in Macbeth, Stanley Hall as Abraham Lincoln, Sarah Padden as Mary Todd Lincoln, Ruth Clifford as English Nurse, Ivan Hayes as Bernardo in Hamlet, Paul Frees as Francisco in Hamlet, Ben Wright as Horatio in Hamlet, Melinda Markey as Young Lady, Eleanor Audley as Mrs. Montchesington, Percival Vivian as Polonius in Hamlet, George Melford as Stage Doorman, Ruth Warren as Nurse, Richard H. Cutting as Doctor, Lane Chandler as Colonel, Steven Darrell as Maj. Rathbone, Tom Fadden as Trenchard, Henry Kulky as Bartender, Olan Soule as Catesby in Richard III, Eva Le Gallienne as Queen Gertrude in Hamlet, Jack Raine as Theater Manager, Paul Wexler as Miner, Ethan Laidlaw as Barfly, and Jack Mower as Man in Audience.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,029

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