The Princess Comes Across (1936)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

William K. Howard

Writers:

Louis Lucien Rogger (novel)
Philip MacDonald (story)

Release Date:

22 May 1936 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Plot:

A woman pretends to be royalty in order to get aboard a cruise ship.

Plot Keywords:

Princess | Bandleader | Detective | Royalty | Police Detective

Cast

Carole Lombard	...	Wanda Nash aka Princess Olga
Fred MacMurray	...	King Mantell
Douglass Dumbrille	...	Inspector Lorel
Alison Skipworth	...	Lady Gertrude Allwyn
George Barbier	...	Captain Nicholls
William Frawley	...	Benton
Porter Hall	...	Robert M. Darcy
Lumsden Hare	...	Inspector Cragg
Sig Ruman	...	Inspector Steindorf (as Sig Rumann)
Mischa Auer	...	Inspector Morevitch
Bradley Page	...	The Stranger
Tetsu Komai	...	Inspector Kawati

Runtime:

76 min

Country:

USA

Language:

French | English | Swedish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #2130) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-G (TV rating)

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Several cast members in studio records/casting call lists did not appear or were not identifiable in the movie. These were (with their character names): Pat Flaherty and Creighton Hale (Officers), André Cheron (French Man) and Larry Steers (Assistant Purser).

Quotes:

Princess Olga: Poor, dear Uncle Rudy. Somebody was always shooting at him.
Morevitch: In my country, they shoot at everybody's uncle.

Soundtrack:

Pampa Rose

THE PRINCESS COMES ACROSS (William K. Howard, 1936) ***

This is a delightful blend of zany comedy and murder mystery, almost completely set aboard ship and featuring a most excellent cast, though perhaps not quite a classic – mainly because the thriller element lacks the touch of sophistication associated with THE THIN MAN (1934), which was the prototype of this style at the time.

Carole Lombard and Alison Skipworth are unemployed New York actors posing as Swedish royalty to attract a film contract (hence the title – with the star supplying a delicious parody of Greta Garbo); Fred MacMurray and William Frawley are a concertina player and his manager, respectively; George Barbier is the ship's captain; Porter Hall is a slimy blackmailer who preys on three of the ship's passengers (the fraudulent Lombard, MacMurray – with a spell in jail behind him – and another who's a murderer impersonating a missing passenger – though the stranger seen prowling about intermittently is eventually revealed as a red herring); conveniently on board is an international convention of detectives comprising Douglass Dumbrille (French), Sig Rumann (German), Mischa Auer (Russian), Lumsden Hare (British) and Tetsu Komai (Japanese).

When Hall turns up dead (the shadowy lighting in this scene, courtesy of cinematographer Ted Tetzlaff, is actually rather striking) and a passenger list in his pocket bears a mark near Lombard and MacMurray's names, naturally they arouse the detectives' suspicion – despite Barbier's attempts to keep the Princess out of such indiscretions. Typically, MacMurray and Frawley carry out their own sleuthing – though Rumann is actually the first to get to the truth, but doesn't live long enough to reveal the identity of the killer to his associates! So, in an effort to distract the murderer's attention off Lombard, MacMurray – who, naturally, has fallen for the leading lady (even after he becomes aware of her less-than-regal/foreign-origins) – declares that he has solved the case, fully expecting a rendezvous with the guilty party but counting on pal Frawley to bail him out at the last minute.

There are plenty of amusing situations throughout (notably the scene in which Frawley is derided by fellow passengers for wearing a French painter's cap) and witty repartee (particularly as delivered by Skipworth and Auer), but also some genuine tension at the climax (even if the final unmasking of the villain hardly proves a surprise) – not to mention a musical number from MacMurray!