I disliked this story the first few times I saw it because of the selflessness (look it up ... in an Ayn Rand dictionary) demanded of the Student Prince.
Seeing it again on Turner Classic Movies on 3 Nov 2015, in a marathon of Norma Shearer movies, I was so overwhelmed by the performance of Miss Shearer I could almost overlook the psychological destruction of Karl Heinrich.
If Norma Shearer has ever given a better performance, I've not seen it and really can't imagine a better. She was lovely, and her character "Kathi," was innocent, beguiling, strong-willed, honest, exuberant, simply adorable. Simply wonderful.
Henceforth, I am a confirmed Norma Shearer fan, a worshiper.
Jean Hersholt has a great role as a lovable tutor who realizes the lonely little boy who is Crown Prince needs a friend as much as he needs a teacher.
That Crown Prince is beautifully played by Ramon Novarro, whose career later fell on hard times for some reason, but who was so great in so many silent films, including this one and "Ben Hur."
He was a good-looking young man, and more than capable. Watch his eyes, and his expression, especially during the drinking scene as the Crown Prince arrives at the school in Heidelberg. Especially watch his eyes. Magnificent performance.
And watch him when he's told "Duty. Obligation. Tradition." Collectivist concepts are so destructive of human happiness.
How an individual human being is subordinated to collectivist concepts is one key element of "A Student Prince" and we get a suggestion of why everyone needs to read I Samuel 8, for a look at the other side of the point of that biblical chapter.
As sad as "A Student Prince in Old Heidelberg" ultimately is, it is still a classic film, with a superb cast in the sad story, and one reason it is a classic is its director: Ernst Lubitsch was one of the absolute masters of this visual art. (He directed a 1925 version of "Lady Windermere's Fan," the Oscar Wilde story. Just imagine a silent version of that talkative author's work! Yet Lubitsch pulled it off -- beautifully.)
Carl Davis, a marvelous modern composer, is probably the perfect choice to create a score for a silent -- or talkie -- film, and he produced the one used here, adding one more layer of art and beauty to a moving movie.
Obviously I do recommend, highly, "The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg."
Seeing it again on Turner Classic Movies on 3 Nov 2015, in a marathon of Norma Shearer movies, I was so overwhelmed by the performance of Miss Shearer I could almost overlook the psychological destruction of Karl Heinrich.
If Norma Shearer has ever given a better performance, I've not seen it and really can't imagine a better. She was lovely, and her character "Kathi," was innocent, beguiling, strong-willed, honest, exuberant, simply adorable. Simply wonderful.
Henceforth, I am a confirmed Norma Shearer fan, a worshiper.
Jean Hersholt has a great role as a lovable tutor who realizes the lonely little boy who is Crown Prince needs a friend as much as he needs a teacher.
That Crown Prince is beautifully played by Ramon Novarro, whose career later fell on hard times for some reason, but who was so great in so many silent films, including this one and "Ben Hur."
He was a good-looking young man, and more than capable. Watch his eyes, and his expression, especially during the drinking scene as the Crown Prince arrives at the school in Heidelberg. Especially watch his eyes. Magnificent performance.
And watch him when he's told "Duty. Obligation. Tradition." Collectivist concepts are so destructive of human happiness.
How an individual human being is subordinated to collectivist concepts is one key element of "A Student Prince" and we get a suggestion of why everyone needs to read I Samuel 8, for a look at the other side of the point of that biblical chapter.
As sad as "A Student Prince in Old Heidelberg" ultimately is, it is still a classic film, with a superb cast in the sad story, and one reason it is a classic is its director: Ernst Lubitsch was one of the absolute masters of this visual art. (He directed a 1925 version of "Lady Windermere's Fan," the Oscar Wilde story. Just imagine a silent version of that talkative author's work! Yet Lubitsch pulled it off -- beautifully.)
Carl Davis, a marvelous modern composer, is probably the perfect choice to create a score for a silent -- or talkie -- film, and he produced the one used here, adding one more layer of art and beauty to a moving movie.
Obviously I do recommend, highly, "The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg."