The very same year that MGM documented the musical life of Austrian born composer Sigmund Romberg, they also made the only screen version of his classic operetta "The Student Prince", previously only seen on screen as a silent. While it's the voice of Mario Lanza whom you hear here, it is the handsome face of Edmund Purdom whose mouth lip syncs to the singing. Ann Blyth had a brief MGM musical career by playing the role of bar maid Katherine who falls in love with the spoiled prince she initially finds a pompous ass. "Come Boys, Let's All Be Gay Boys!", she sings along with her regular customers as part of "The Drinking Song", and indeed, this is is a very "gay" story, "gay" meaning something quite different here than it does today.
Spoofed on "I Love Lucy", these type of operettas was not for every taste in the mid 1950's, a cynical era of change. Today, there's a bit of a camp element, but if you can get past that and see only the romantic elements, it truly will sweep you away into its timeless tale of a love that can only destined to be ill-fated. It's easy to forgive Purdom's prince for his initially snooty pretentious attitude, and he wins much sympathy over his romantic rival (John Ericson). S.Z. Sakall offers his usually "cute" performance as Blyth's employer, with John Williams imperious as Purdom's valet and Louis Calhern profound as the King. But this is a film about the romance, so when Blyth and Purdom (through Lanza's powerful pipes) sing "Serenade" and "Deep in My Heart, Dear", it truly becomes romantic. The emotional highlight is the prince's singing of "I'll Walk With God" which comes at the turning point of his life, the point where a boy must become a man, and duty takes over personal desires.
Blyth would shine in the three musicals she did at MGM which also included "Rose Marie" (very different from the Jeanette MacDonald/Nelson Eddy version) and "Kismet". This is as far a cry from her most famous role (Veda in "Mildred Pierce"), and it really is a shame that this had to come out just as the MGM musical was wrapping up its last years of glory.
Spoofed on "I Love Lucy", these type of operettas was not for every taste in the mid 1950's, a cynical era of change. Today, there's a bit of a camp element, but if you can get past that and see only the romantic elements, it truly will sweep you away into its timeless tale of a love that can only destined to be ill-fated. It's easy to forgive Purdom's prince for his initially snooty pretentious attitude, and he wins much sympathy over his romantic rival (John Ericson). S.Z. Sakall offers his usually "cute" performance as Blyth's employer, with John Williams imperious as Purdom's valet and Louis Calhern profound as the King. But this is a film about the romance, so when Blyth and Purdom (through Lanza's powerful pipes) sing "Serenade" and "Deep in My Heart, Dear", it truly becomes romantic. The emotional highlight is the prince's singing of "I'll Walk With God" which comes at the turning point of his life, the point where a boy must become a man, and duty takes over personal desires.
Blyth would shine in the three musicals she did at MGM which also included "Rose Marie" (very different from the Jeanette MacDonald/Nelson Eddy version) and "Kismet". This is as far a cry from her most famous role (Veda in "Mildred Pierce"), and it really is a shame that this had to come out just as the MGM musical was wrapping up its last years of glory.