Thank you for this perfect holiday treat! I insanely love the Ruritania books by Anthony Hope! They need to be remade as one long epic movie, but divided into two parts: "The Prisoner of Zenda" and "Rupert of Hentzau," then released about six months apart: say, May and November--much like the two Musketeer movies back in the 1970s. David Tennant, perhaps, or Benedict Cumberbatch as Rudolf and Cillian Murphy as Rupert. I understand that in the late 1930s, David Selznick had planned to film "Rupert" as a sequel to his "Zenda" but the project was canceled. A loss to cultural history! Colman and Fairbanks were born to play those characters! A shout-out to 1965's "The Great Race" which featured a perfect Zenda spoof--and one of the best saber duels on screen!
But what about Sophy of Kravonia..? I gather the 1930s sequel was cancelled simply because the tone of the story is somewhat downbeat compared to the first one... though of course you might just as easily say that about the second half of The Three Musketeers, and they still adapt that. Radio, as ever, is the medium best-able to do the heavy lifting on epics like this. These two plays were first broadcast on two consecutive Saturday Nights - perfect really. There was also a 1990s radio adaptation of the first book which is also on the channel somewhere. Additionally... if you're not aware of it you might be interested to know that Philip Pullman wrote his own Ruritania-style adventure - 'The Tin Princess', a spin-off from his Sally Lockheart books. That's set in a country called Razkavia I think... but it's pretty clear what he's imitating there.
@MysticalMagpie-wo5fn Actually, I like the idea of an adventure story that starts off being silly and upbeat, but gradually becomes more and more somber and serious as the story progresses. The middle (original) Star Wars trilogy is an example of that. Perhaps it took a while for audiences to embrace that kind of storytelling. I should look up "The Tin Princess." I enjoy Sally Lockheart!
Your description of starting off silly and becoming progressively darker sounds *exactly* like the 1970s films of The Three Musketeers - as a kid I found it quite shocking, having enjoyed the fun of the first film so much, to be confronted with so much tragedy in the second film - but of course as I got older I appreciated it more...
@MysticalMagpie-wo5fn Thank you. One of the hallmarks of a classic (a classic anything!) is that you can return to it again and again and always find something new and thrilling in it that you had missed when you were younger. It's a mark of its richness and genius on the one hand, and a measure of your own maturation and growing insight on the other. It's much like the remark that Mark Twain once made; he left his father as a boy and returned to him as a man a few years later--and was astonished at how much his old man had learned in those few years!
Love PoZ! Though the 1937 film is better, who can unsee James Mason in that lilac onesie in the 1953 film? This is such a 💝 while I disassemble the vacuum and the last pudding steams. Glamourous, I know. Happy Christmas, Magpie and fellow listeners.
I quite agree - I saw the 1950s film first and will always love Mason's dry delivery - but then I saw the 1937 version and realised how absolutely perfect Fairbanks Junior was for the character (having read the book by then). Happy Christmas to you too!
Thank you for this perfect holiday treat! I insanely love the Ruritania books by Anthony Hope! They need to be remade as one long epic movie, but divided into two parts: "The Prisoner of Zenda" and "Rupert of Hentzau," then released about six months apart: say, May and November--much like the two Musketeer movies back in the 1970s. David Tennant, perhaps, or Benedict Cumberbatch as Rudolf and Cillian Murphy as Rupert.
I understand that in the late 1930s, David Selznick had planned to film "Rupert" as a sequel to his "Zenda" but the project was canceled. A loss to cultural history! Colman and Fairbanks were born to play those characters!
A shout-out to 1965's "The Great Race" which featured a perfect Zenda spoof--and one of the best saber duels on screen!
But what about Sophy of Kravonia..? I gather the 1930s sequel was cancelled simply because the tone of the story is somewhat downbeat compared to the first one... though of course you might just as easily say that about the second half of The Three Musketeers, and they still adapt that. Radio, as ever, is the medium best-able to do the heavy lifting on epics like this. These two plays were first broadcast on two consecutive Saturday Nights - perfect really. There was also a 1990s radio adaptation of the first book which is also on the channel somewhere. Additionally... if you're not aware of it you might be interested to know that Philip Pullman wrote his own Ruritania-style adventure - 'The Tin Princess', a spin-off from his Sally Lockheart books. That's set in a country called Razkavia I think... but it's pretty clear what he's imitating there.
@MysticalMagpie-wo5fn Actually, I like the idea of an adventure story that starts off being silly and upbeat, but gradually becomes more and more somber and serious as the story progresses. The middle (original) Star Wars trilogy is an example of that. Perhaps it took a while for audiences to embrace that kind of storytelling.
I should look up "The Tin Princess." I enjoy Sally Lockheart!
Your description of starting off silly and becoming progressively darker sounds *exactly* like the 1970s films of The Three Musketeers - as a kid I found it quite shocking, having enjoyed the fun of the first film so much, to be confronted with so much tragedy in the second film - but of course as I got older I appreciated it more...
@MysticalMagpie-wo5fn Thank you. One of the hallmarks of a classic (a classic anything!) is that you can return to it again and again and always find something new and thrilling in it that you had missed when you were younger. It's a mark of its richness and genius on the one hand, and a measure of your own maturation and growing insight on the other.
It's much like the remark that Mark Twain once made; he left his father as a boy and returned to him as a man a few years later--and was astonished at how much his old man had learned in those few years!
Love PoZ! Though the 1937 film is better, who can unsee James Mason in that lilac onesie in the 1953 film?
This is such a 💝 while I disassemble the vacuum and the last pudding steams. Glamourous, I know.
Happy Christmas, Magpie and fellow listeners.
I quite agree - I saw the 1950s film first and will always love Mason's dry delivery - but then I saw the 1937 version and realised how absolutely perfect Fairbanks Junior was for the character (having read the book by then). Happy Christmas to you too!
Happy Christmas to you too! And thank you Magpie for posting some of my favorite novels it’s made me very happy 😊