The Prince and the Pauper **** (1937, Errol Flynn, Claude Rains, Billy Mauch, Bobby Mauch) – Classic Movie Review 3589

Errol Flynn (as Miles Hendon), Claude Rains and twins Billy Mauch and Bobby Mauch [Robert J Mauch] lead Warner Bros’ invigorating version of the famous old Mark Twain tale about two lookalike lads born on the same day.

Billy Mauch stars as Tom Canty, a poor street kid, who swaps roles with his dead ringer, Prince Edward Tudor (Bobby Mauch), in 16th-century England, thoroughly confusing everybody, except the audience.

Produced by Hal B Wallis and Robert Lord, this is a beautifully done historical adventure, with skilful direction by William Keighley; a stirring Erich Wolfgang Korngold score; entertaining performances, particularly Rains as the horrid Earl of Hertford; and a lavish production with good sense of history.

Laird Doyle’s screenplay of Twain’s immortal classic comes via a theatre play version by Catherine Chishold Cushing.

Also in the cast are Henry Stephenson as the Duke of Norfolk, Barton MacLane as John Canty, Alan Hale as the Captain of the Guard, Eric Portman as the First Lord, Montagu Love as Henry VIII, Lionel Pape, Halliwell Hobbes, Fritz Leiber, Leonard Wiley, Murray Kinnell, Phyllis Barry, Ivan F Simpson, Elspeth Dudgeon, Mary Field, Forrester Harvey, Joan Valerie, Lester Matthews, Robert Adair, Harry Cording, Robert Warwick, Rex Evans, Holmes Herbert, Ian Maclaren, Ann Howard, Gwedolyn Jones, Lionel Braham, Harry Beresford, Lionel Belmore, Daisy Belmore, Ian Wolfe, Jimmy Aubrey, Charles Coleman, Will Stanton and Tom Wilson.

Other versions are the 1962 The Prince and the Pauper with Guy Williams, Laurence Naismith, Donald Houston, Sean Scully and Jane Asher; the 1977 The Prince and the Pauper with Mark Lester, Oliver Reed, Raquel Welch, Ernest Borgnine, George C Scott, Rex Harrison. David Hemmings, Charlton Heston and Harry Andrews; and the 2002 TV movie The Prince and the Pauper with Aidan Quinn, Alan Bates and Jonathan Hyde.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3589

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