MovieChat Forums > The Prisoner of Zenda (1952) Discussion > I Just Did Something That Neither Cromwe...

I Just Did Something That Neither Cromwell Nor Thorpe Did:


I read the novel.
Now I know that the script of Balderston, Langley and company is GARBAGE! The real plot is distorted so much by the film makers that practically the only things true to the novel are the title and the names of the characters.😠😠😠😠😠

God is subtle, but He is not malicious. (Albert Einstein)

reply

Even more irritating is that, unlike the convoluted plots of such novels as the original OLIVER TWIST, which cannot be filmed without considerable alterations, the plot of TPOZ is relatively simple and straightforward, which means that the entire story can be filmed without any cuts in a reasonable space of a little over two hours. If you read the novel, you will find it to be so.
God is subtle, but He is not malicious. (Albert Einstein)

reply

I don't know why you assume they hadn't read the novels. Maybe they had, maybe they hadn't. As has been pointed out to you repeatedly in other threads, Hollywood is rarely, if ever, faithful to a literary text. It is not a priority for Hollywood. Only in rare instances, where there is a huge fan base for the novel, do you sometimes see fidelity to the "sacred text" be a priority. Some examples of that might be Gone With The Wind and more recently the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter series. The Prisoner of Zenda had no such fan base. It certainly doesn't today. If you have a favorite novel, and variations from the story are going to bother you, don't see the movie.

reply

Did you watch the spoof (???!!!) starring Peter Sellers? That crud was clearly created by people who only know TPOZ from previous equally cruddy spoofs.
God is subtle, but He is not malicious. (Albert Einstein)

reply