The Prince
And The Showgirl (1957)
romantic comedy
directed
by : Laurence Olivier
featuring
: Marilyn Monroe - Laurence Olivier - Sybil Thorndike - Richard Wattis
- Jeremy Spencer
running
time : 2 hours 7 minutes
The title of the Anglo-American The Prince
And The Showgirl could well have alluded to the genuine stations in life
of stars Sir Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe. Based on the Terrence
Rattigan play The Sleeping Prince, the film casts Olivier as Charles, Prince
Regent of Carpathia, who is in London to attend the 1911 coronation of
King George V. Monroe is deceptively dizzy American chorus girl Elsie Marina,
who while performing in a West End revue catches Charles' eye. The Prince
arranges for Elsie to attend an "intimate supper" at his hotel suite. Though
Elsie successfully wards off Charles' advances, she drinks too much bubbly
and ends up falling asleep. Comes the dawn, and Prince Charles is anxious
to show the awkward Elsie the door. She, however, has fallen in love with
the Prince, and sticks around long enough to upset a plan to overthrow
the Carpathian throne, and to patch up a feud between Charles and his son
Nicholas (Jeremy Spencer). Olivier directed as well as starred in TThe
Prince And The Showgirl; he knew he had his work cut out for him in dealing
with the mercurial Monroe, but he managed to hold his temper and to extract
a delightful comic performance from the actress. Alas, the film was a box
office disappointment, leading many Hollywood insiders to moan and wail
that Monroe was "washed up" in films at least until her spectacular comeback
in Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot (1959).