MovieChat Forums > Princess O'Rourke (1943) Discussion > Daughter of the King of England?

Daughter of the King of England?

posted 17 years ago by artistathome
6 replies | jump to latest

Are we supposed to believe she is a daughter of the King of England? They say her father is in London. Or was her a brother or a cousin -- I didn't quite get that.
I guess in those innocent times and in war, the fantasy would take over an audience and pretend that this is a story of Princess Elizabeth. I noticed that this was 1943 and Princess Elizabeth would have been pretty young, only 17...She didn't ascend to the throne until 1952, at age 26.
It was sort of enjoyable. But what happened after they got married? He still had to agree to all those conditions. Left a lot unanswered questions.

Robert Cummings was enjoyable to watch in any movie, wasn't he?

Nina

[–] sggar00 17 years ago

No, not the daughter of the King of England. But earlier in the movie when her uncle said that their country was over-ran and that once again we'll be in back in power. Then Mary explains that her father recently arrived in London. So the family fled to England.

Just a good movie.

[–] navywife6276 17 years ago

Thanks for clarifying this. I was also under the (albeit, mistaken) impression that her father was King of England.

Saw this film last night, thought that it was delightful. It has been called a precursor to "Roman Holiday" but thought it shared more similarities to "It Happened One Night." Does anyone else agree?

[–] Doylenf 17 years ago

It's much more like ROMAN HOLIDAY, plotwise.

Even the "sleeping pill" buisness is like what happens to sleepy, groggy Audrey Hepburn in RH. In fact, they keep her in a "sleepy" state much longer than the brief scene in PRINCESS O'ROURKE where Eddie is telling her to "open her eyes" wider. That, and the fact that it's about a commoner and a princess makes it automatically like RH, not IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT. The only thing it has in common with that one is the mistaken identity theme.

[–] sggar00 17 years ago

I believe that RH is more along the lines of this movie; since it came out before RH.

[–] loureibl 17 years ago

Actually, Eddie DOESN'T have to agree to all of the marital conditions - that's the whole point of having the secret ceremony. He gets to maintain his American citizenship, etc. - the only document used by the marrying couple during their ceremony was the marriage license. Just because "it's the custom" doesn't mean Eddie and the Princess automatically are bound by the conditions. Eddie didn't sign any of the documents offered to him and described by the State Department official - he refused to marry the Princess under those conditions.

[–] tgreene_msp 15 years ago

Her father was in London, probably because England was home to a lot of the displaced Royalsof Europe as Nazi Germany expanded her historical borders. The Princess was probably sent to America because America was an ocean away from Europe, and as a royal, by keeping one member of the family at a then-difficult distance to cross, the line of succession could be maintained.

One of my favorite Robert Cummings scenes is one of his last in the film "Promise Her Anything" with Warren Beatty, where Warren makes the comment "May God grant you a television series..." The expression on Robert's face as he looks back at Warren...