"The Prisoner of Zenda" has been made and re-made many times. And, considering how good the 1922, 1937 and 1952 versions were, it's amazing that they'd think to remake it yet again in 1979. And, in hindsight, this probably was a bad idea (see the IMDB trivia if you don't believe me). Like many of Peter Sellers' films (especially late in his career), for every wonderful movie he made, he made at least a couple disappointing failures.. The wonderful film he made about this time was "Being There" and the disappointments were this movie as well as "The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu"....two painfully unfunny pictures which make you wonder why he agreed to make them in the first place. Apparently, Sellers or his agent had a hard time picking decent movie projects.
The story is supposed to be a humorous version of the classic story...and it's obvious this is the case in the silly opening scene where the elderly king (Sellers) falls to his death while ballooning. Now, the dead king's foolish and dissolute son is to become the new ruler of Ruritania (also Sellers). And, enemies of the new king are out to destroy him. His advisors come up with a plan to save him...to have an identical looking cab driver pretend to be the king!
The problem with "The Prisoner of Zenda" is not that it's terrible...it's actually watchable. But the earlier versions were wonderful...and by comparison it is terrible. Plus the film too often relies on dopey humor and slapstick (such as the king's speech impediment and the exploding croquet ball).
By the way, although it didn't work well here, Peter Sellers could be wonderful playing multiple roles in a movie. Try watching "The Mouse That Roared" or "Dr. Strangelove" and you'll see him do this marvelously.
The story is supposed to be a humorous version of the classic story...and it's obvious this is the case in the silly opening scene where the elderly king (Sellers) falls to his death while ballooning. Now, the dead king's foolish and dissolute son is to become the new ruler of Ruritania (also Sellers). And, enemies of the new king are out to destroy him. His advisors come up with a plan to save him...to have an identical looking cab driver pretend to be the king!
The problem with "The Prisoner of Zenda" is not that it's terrible...it's actually watchable. But the earlier versions were wonderful...and by comparison it is terrible. Plus the film too often relies on dopey humor and slapstick (such as the king's speech impediment and the exploding croquet ball).
By the way, although it didn't work well here, Peter Sellers could be wonderful playing multiple roles in a movie. Try watching "The Mouse That Roared" or "Dr. Strangelove" and you'll see him do this marvelously.