The Princess Comes Across

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The Princess Comes Across
theatrical release poster
Directed byWilliam K. Howard
Screenplay byWalter DeLeon
Francis Martin
Don Hartman
Frank Butler[1]
Claude Binyon (uncredited)
J. B. Priestley (uncredited)
Story byPhilip MacDonald (adaptation)
Based onA Halálkabin ("Death Cab")
(1934 novel)
by Louis Lucien Rogger
(Laszlo Aigner and Louis Acze)
Produced byArthur Hornblow Jr.
StarringCarole Lombard
Fred MacMurray
CinematographyTed Tetzlaff
Edited byPaul Weatherwax
Music bySong "My Concertina":
Phil Boutelje
Jack Scholl
Production
company
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • May 22, 1936 (1936-05-22)
Running time
75-76 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Princess Comes Across is a 1936 American

MGM's Swedish star Greta Garbo.[2]
The film was based on the 1935 novel A Halálkabin by Louis Lucien Rogger, the pseudonym of Laszlo Aigner and Louis Acze.

Plot

Wanda Nash (Carole Lombard), an actress from Brooklyn, decides to masquerade as "Princess Olga" from Sweden in order to land a film contract with a big Hollywood studio. On board the liner Mammoth bound for New York, she runs into King Mantell (Fred MacMurray), a concertina-playing band leader with a criminal record in his past. Both are blackmailed by Robert M. Darcy (Porter Hall), and after Darcy is killed, they become two of the prime suspects for the murder, and must find the real killer before the five police detectives traveling on the ship can pin it on them.

Cast

Production

The Princess Comes Across – which began with the working title Concertina[3] – was initially intended to pair Lombard with George Raft for the third time, but Raft walked out when the studio assigned Ted Tetzlaff to photograph the film.[4] Raft felt that Tetzlaff had made Lombard look better than himself in their earlier film, Rumba, and did not want it to happen again.[5][6] It was one of many roles Raft rejected after becoming a star.[7]

With Raft out of the picture, and temporarily suspended for his actions,[3] the studio re-teamed Lombard and MacMurray, who had made the screwball comedy Hands Across the Table together in 1935. They would be paired together twice more, in 1937's Swing High, Swing Low and True Confession, made in the same year.[5]

Aside from casting concerns, filming was also delayed by the need for additional dialogue, which caused a change of directors from

Harold Young to William K. Howard, and, after filming had begun in February 1936, by conflict between Howard and the producer's assistant.[citation needed
]

Reception

Both the film and the stars received good notices.

New York Times review called the film a "mild-to-boresome comedy."[5]

Adaptations

The Lux Radio Theater presented a one-hour radio adaptation of the film in December 1938, with Fred MacMurray repeating his role and Madeleine Carroll playing Wanda Nash/Princess Olga.[5]

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b The Princess Comes Across at the American Film Institute Catalog
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-0871951670
    pp.136-137
  3. ^
    TCM.com
  4. ^ Aaker, Everett. The Films of George Raft, McFarland & Company, 2013. p.138
  5. ^
    TCM.com
  6. ProQuest 164552400
    .
  7. ^ Vagg, Stephen (February 9, 2020). "Why Stars Stop Being Stars: George Raft". Filmink.

External links


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