Product Details

• Actors: Ramon Novarro, Norma Shearer, Jean Hersholt, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Philippe De Lacy
• Directors: Ernst Lubitsch, John M. Stahl
• Format: Black & White, Silent, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM/UA Home Video
• VHS Release Date: September 1, 1998
• Run Time: 105 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302004489
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,401 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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  Video > Classics > Silent Films > Drama

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Ernst Lubitsch brought his famous touch to this sentimental romantic drama, a famous operetta about a young prince who falls in love with a commoner. A kindly tutor (Jean Hersholt) effectively raises the boy in a splendorous kingdom of rolling hills and vast forests while his distant father rules in the cold, tradition-bound palace. When he turns 18, Prince Karl Heinrich (Ramon Novarro) is sent to Heidelberg for an education, in more ways than one. He enrolls incognito to get a taste of real life and falls in love with the kittenish, sweetly rambunctious barmaid Katchen (Norma Shearer). The prince becomes so caught up in his student revelries, school chums, and his first love, that he forgets he has a world outside of university until royal duties call him back to the palace. Shot partly on location in Germany, where the gorgeous countryside contrasts with the lavish palace and quaint German beer garden built on the MGM lot, this was the grandest of Lubtisch's productions to date, though one where his famous wit played second fiddle to glossy melodrama. The marriage of Lubitsch and MGM seems near perfect: the studio offered the glitz and the star power, and Lubitsch the intimacy. This is real tearjerker material, but Lubitsch's sensibility brings rollicking fun and a playful sense of sexual discovery in the first half, and pathos to the bittersweet romantic drama that ends the film. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars love, royal style, February 1, 2003

By	Alejandra Vernon "artist & illustrator" (Long Beach, California) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This 1927 silent classic may seem like a frothy piece of fluff at first, but it is actually quite tragic, and true to life.
Exquisitely directed by Ernst Lubitsch, it has meticulous attention to detail, and is wonderfully photographed. I love the hillside of flowers, which is later seen barren. There are many delicate touches in this film, that make it good for many viewings. The orchestral score by Carl Davis is also pleasing, with its share of om-pah-pah drinking songs, waltzes, and a melodic "love theme".

The cast is brilliant, starting with the delightful Phillipe De Lacy, who plays the prince as a child. Jean Hersholt is marvelous as the tutor, Dr. Juttner, and then there are the two glowing stars: Norma Shearer and Ramon Novarro, who have terrific on-screen chemistry. Shearer is sweet and touching as Kathi the barmaid, and is also sometimes hilarious.

Novarro is exceptional as the adult prince; slight of build, with a gentle beauty and a huge winning smile, he gives us a thoroughly convincing portrayal, his face expressing subtle emotions not often seen in the silent film genre. Mexican by birth, many critics who reviewed this film when it was released said he was too Latin for the part, but time has proved them wrong.

Novarro and Shearer were actors who managed to make the transition from silent films to "talkies", due to their lovely speaking voices and immense talent; there is not much available in the way of their silent film career to be seen however, so this one is a special treat, and you will find the last scene, and the look on Novarro's face, embedded in your heart and mind for a long time to come.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The silent screen at its most charming, January 29, 2001

By	Scott Lahti ([e-mail]) (The big lake they call Gitche Gumee) - See all my reviews

TV host Joe Franklin, WOR-New York's long-reigning king of 2 am nostalgia (THE JOE FRANKLIN SHOW), has described this most winning of silent classics with affection as "Viennese fairy tale, all sugar and apple blossoms". It certainly ranks as among the unjustly overshadowed films of its caliber. The basic plot is a staple of folklore and film alike: a royal who slips out of character for a brief fling at enjoying the pleasures of the common life, before being recalled to the path of duty(think of the Audrey Hepburn-Gregory Peck vehicle ROMAN HOLIDAY) In this case, young Crown Prince Karl Heinrich (Ramon Novarro), adored since boyhood by his subjects, but chafing under the enforced stuffiness of palace officialdom, passes his pre-collegiate exams with high honors after years of private tutoring by his beloved teacher Dr. Juttner (Jean Hersholt). Passing as just another student at the University of Heidelberg, he revels in the cap-and-jacket camaraderie of drinking with his mates at the local beer garden, presided over by the lovely barmaid Kathi (Norma Shearer), with whom he falls in love, only to find himself recalled to the demands of palace and position when his uncle falls ill. Ramon Novarro had earlier been billed unjustly as "a second Valentino", a straitjacket he escaped handily with his career-making performance a year earlier in the title role in Cecil B. DeMille's BEN-HUR (1926), and here brings warmth and youthful innocence to his role as the Student Prince, with Norma Shearer never more winsome than in her love scenes with Novarro (she wed legendary MGM production chief Irving Thalberg a week after the premiere of this film). Lubitsch's trademark flashes of visual wit are already apparent in this early effort - a dachsund saunters into a garden where Karl Heinrich is engaged in wooing Kathi, and turns around in an instant and departs in knowing discretion after seeing the amorous pair. The moonlit love scenes in the flower-capped hills are among the loveliest tableaux from the silent years, and the stirring score and orchestration provided by Carl Davis, the great silent-film-score composer of our time, deserves special acclaim. This handsome restoration of the original print by that heroic duo, English silent-film scholars Kevin Brownlow and David Gill, easily earns pride of place on the short-shelf of anyone who has ever been moved by the poetry and charm of the silent years.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Totally charming love story, May 5, 2002

By	Simon Davis - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This Ernst Lubitsch production would have to be one of the most delightful silent films produced. In reality it is a fairytale but done with such sincerity and care for the story and characters that you cannot help but be moved by it and feel strongly for the characters.

Ramon Novarro could not have been more perfectly cast than in this production where he plays the shy and sheltered prince of the title who goes to study at Heidelberg and in the process learns about life and love and finds his place in the world as a result. Never has he given a more totally delightful performance than here and its a joy to watch his character develop from being the withdrawn, pensive prince to the adult realising that he must take up his responsibilities in his kingdom over his love for the lovely barmaid he has fallen for. By this time Ramon was reaching the peak of his silent film stardom having just completed "Ben Hur" and following this film was due to appear in the wonderful south seas romance "The Pagan" which contains possibly his very best performance. Any doubt that Ramon was more than just a second string Valentino is dispelled in "Student Prince" He is at times boyish, romantic, sad ,and ultimately a mature person aware of his responsibilities.

The line "It must be wonderful to be a Prince" is repeated throughout the film by his admiring subjects but really the role he has to play in life is the one thing that creates trouble for Ramon's character of Prince Karl Heinrich. It first removes him from being able to play with other children his own age as a child, to keeping him from really being a student at Heidelberg and finally it denies him his chance to find love with Kathi the young barmaid at the inn where he resides in Heidelberg. Ramon's gentle playing of the prince and the rather sad ending to the film when he sacrifices love for duty will never fail to move you and it's a splendid piece of acting by Ramon Novarro.

He of course is also ably assisted by the wonderful Jean Hersholt as he understanding tutor and friend and by Norma Shearer who is great as the barmaid who must also make a sacrifice and let the Prince go to his destiny. Shearer was just reaching stardom at this time and married Irving Thalberg just after completing this film. She was set to enjoy many years of stardom as the Queen of MGM .

As always the film benefits from the MGM attention to detail and the expertise of every area of production so typical of this period. The VHS print is in a wonderful state of preservation and benefits greatly from the beautiful full orchestral score that has been composed for it.

This Lubitsch production is a delight to behold and vastly superior to the later remake under the title "The Student Prince". For those of you who have an interest in silent films or are just curious to see what one is like , you could not find a better choice than Ernst Lubitsch's "The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg"