The Prisoner of Zenda (1979)

 I've wanted to see this film a long time, mostly to see Stuart Wilson play Rupert of Hentzau.  I discovered the full movie lurking on youtube, so took the opportunity finally to watch it.

It's a comedy.  It's Peter Sellers... which tells you all you need to know.  I'm not a particular fan of either, so I'm not the audience for this film.  This isn't a good movie, but neither is it terrible.  The humor is forced and dated, and, alas, I didn't laugh once.  Though I did smile at the owl/chicken disguised calls for help.  Peter Sellers was annoying as Rupert the king, and it was very hard to understand his dialogue.  He was much better as the straight Sidney Frewin (this version's equivalent of Rudolf Rassendyll).  Frewin is a hansom cab driver, which ended up being an intriguing switch.  I did like that Frewin made no attempt to sound like the king while masquerading as him.  He simply didn't speak at all, nodding or mumbling single words instead.  It was refreshing to have the character admit there is no way he could truly impersonate the king.  I also liked that when it came to defending himself, he chose a whip instead of a sword, availing himself of his hansom cab experience.  I really dug that change.  It made for some cool moments in the end fight.  Those moments elevated the movie.

Another thing I liked was the location filming in Austria.  The countryside, castles, and cities were all beautiful.

As for Stuart Wilson, he was my favorite part of the movie, naturally, but even his part was done no favors by the comedy format.  He laughs constantly, in a most annoying manner throughout.  It was over the top and detracted from the character.  I would really like to have seen Stuart Wilson given the chance to play Rupert of Hentzau in a serious version.  If he did well in this version, he would have totally rocked a serious version of Prisoner of Zenda.

Crazy laugh aside, he was handsome and reckless and fearless, as Rupert is supposed to be.  And, of course, I was looking forward to watching him sword fight, as Stuart Wilson is an excellent swordsman.  I was not disappointed.  The movie had Rupert rather inexplicably switch sides in the ending and become a good guy (!).  I approved, however, because it meant Rupert got to fight Michael instead of Frewin.  Michael was played by Jeremy Kemp, another actor quite capable in the sword fighting realm (he plays the bad guy in The Seven-Percent Solution, which has one of my favorite sword fights in it - on top of a train).  The fight between Michael and Rupert was the best part of the movie.  An enthusiastic, fast, brawling duel with swords.  More please!  

The movie concludes with Rudolf heading off to London to continue his dissolute idle layabout routine to his heart's content, while Frewin, former hansom cab driver, marries Princess Flavia and becomes the new king in his place.  In this movie, that change worked well.

I was also amused when John Rhys-Davies showed up with a quick uncredited role as a palace guard with one line of dialogue.  There's no mistaking that voice (or look) anywhere!  

All in all, mostly a waste of time, though it had some moments of promise, and some nice changes to the story that it, unfortunately, didn't quite capitalize on, and some nice fighting at the end.