The Prince Who Was a Thief *** (1951, Tony Curtis, Piper Laurie, Everett Sloane, Peggie Castle, Donald Randolph, Jeff Corey, Betty Garde, Marvin Miller) – Classic Movie Review 4,542

Life magazine attributed the supposed line of doubtful authenticity ‘Yonduh lies de castle of de caliph, my fadder’ to Tony Curtis in the 1951 Technicolor The Prince Who Was a Thief. Apocryphal it may be, but it was widely circulated as true, infuriating the star.

Director Rudolph Maté’s bright, lively and colourful 1951 Universal Pictures Technicolor swashbuckler movie The Prince Who Was a Thief is pure Hollywood escapist romantic adventure hokum, set against a backdrop of 13th-century Tangiers.

The young Tony Curtis (already in his tenth film in only his third year in the movies) appears in his first film as a star as Julna, an Arabian blue-blood misplaced at birth and raised among beggars, who struggles to regain his proper place as prince.

Everett Sloane plays Yussef, an assassin who cannot kill a baby prince as he is hired to do by the regent Prince Mustapha (Donald Randolph) and raises the child as his own, and he grows up to be a thief Julna/ Hussein (Curtis).

Despite a lot of glitter, unlikely costumes and fanciful sets, as well as a script you can see daylight through, it is still good, old-fashioned fairy-tale adventure entertainment, with an exuberant performance by the dashing, very handsome Curtis and an appealing one by the very pretty young Piper Laurie as Tina. Irving Glassberg’s Technicolor cinematography is glorious.

Peggie Castle plays Princess Yasmin.

Peggie Castle as Princess Yasmin, Jeff Corey as Emir Mokar, Betty Garde as Mirza and Marvin Miller as Hakar co-star, along with Nita Bieber, Milada Mladova, Hayden Rorke, Midge Ware, and Carol Varga.

The Prince Who Was a Thief is directed by Rudolph Maté, runs 88 minutes, is made and released by Universal Pictures, is written by Gerald Drayson Adams and Aeneas MacKenzie, based on the story by Theodore Dreiser, is shot in Technicolor by Irving Glassberg, is produced by Leonard Goldstein, is scored by Hans J Salter, and is designed by Bernard Herzbrun and Emrich Nicholson.

Release dates: June 29, 1951 (Detroit premiere) and July 2, 1951 (New York City).

The budget was $1,000,000 (estimated) and it took $1,475,000 in US cinema rentals alone.

Life magazine attributed the Brooklyn-accent-infused supposed line of doubtful authenticity ‘Yonduh lies de castle of de caliph, my fadder’ to Tony Curtis in this film. Apocryphal it may be, but it was widely circulated as true, infuriating the star. On the other hand, the real dialogue includes this from Emir Mokar (Jeff Corey): ‘Son of a noseless mother! Maggot-brained child of a jackass!’

It was a hit and the two stars re-convened for Son of Ali Baba (1952) and Curtis reunited with director Maté for The Black Shield of Falworth (1954).

It was the first of four films co-starring Tony Curtis and Piper Laurie, here both in their starring debuts.

The cast are Tony Curtis as Julna, Piper Laurie as Tina, Everett Sloane as Yussef,  Jeff Corey as Emir Mokar, Betty Garde as Mirza, Marvin Miller as Hakar, Peggie Castle as Princess Yasmin, Donald Randolph as Mustapha, Nita Bieber as Cahuena, Milada Mladova as Dancer, Hayden Rorke as Basra, Midge Ware as Sari, and Carol Varga as Beulah.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4,542

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