User Reviews

Heidelberg, Germany is truly a wonderful city!!! Locate on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. It is the fifth-largest in Baden-Württemberg, and an absolutely glorious place. Sadly, this movie doesn't use any of the real-life locations like the Heidelberg Castle, Hotel Ritter, Old Bridge, or Heidelberg University; choosing instead to film in Laurel Canyon, California for establishing shots. It's one of disappointing things about this film. The fake looking castle model and the lack of local sights, make this movie seem like the story can take place anywhere in Germany, but most of all, remind me, way too much of Munich. Why, because for most of all the film, it only show the beer garden and not enough of the schooling. It really doesn't fit that well with 'Old Heidelberg' motif that much. Still, I have to say, this is one of director, Ernst Lubitsch's finest films. It was well shot. The way, his crew shot the beer-garden with all the students in the opening was amazing and epic. Also, the way, he show the sands of time, toward the end with the hilltop was very powerful. Truly, this movie had the 'Lubitsch Touch'. Loosely based on the 1901 play 'Old Heidelberg' by author Wilhelm Meyer-Förster & the operetta 'Student Prince' by Sigmund Romberg, this sophisticated coming-of-age story tells the tale of an melancholy introvert prince, Karl Heinrich (Ramón Novarro) trying to escape the strict reality of his imprisonment world by travelling to Heidelberg as a student, in attempt to learn what love and comradeship is really about, with the help of a beautiful barmaid, named Kathi Ruder (Norma Shearer). Without spoiling the movie, too much, I have to say, unlike other fairy tale silent films, I had watch. This movie wasn't really boring. Yes, it does have some slow moments in the beginning, but toward the end, the pacing really does pick up. The story was very entertaining for most part, despite having no sound and song numbers. I think, the reason why it works, is because how compelling the acting from both of the main actors, were. While, the romantic chemistry of the two, might be questionable, seeing how one of the actors is gay in real-life, and how the movie doesn't really establish, a good reason for them to fall in love, besides 'love in first sight'. I have to say, both, do work with each other, somewhat well, even if Karl seem a bit 'forceful'. I think, the reason, why I love these two actors, so much in this film, wasn't because of their chemistry for each other, but the way, they were able to show, loneliness and a sense of longing. It's the reason why, I have to disagree with the director feelings that these two roles were miscast. However, it does seem somewhat odd that they would hired a Mexican-American and Irish American for a German role. Despite that, both were charming enough to keep me, interested. Plus, it does help that both of the main performers were very good-looking. I don't care, if Florenz Ziegfeld turn her down, because of her crossed eyes and stubby legs. Norma Shearer is one attractive lady. This was a break-out role for her. The same, goes to Novarro who was promoted by MGM as the next "Latin lover". He really became known as a sex symbol after the death of Rudolph Valentino. It just suck, that he got murder, later in his life. Another reason, why this film, somewhat work for me, was because the witty jokes and humor. It was very funny. Very few misses. Much of this success, goes to supporting actor, Jean Hersholt for the way, he portray, Dr. Friedrich Jüttner, Karl's sympathetic mentor. The way, he interact with his co-stars, makes his scenes, some of the best, in the film. Another reason, why I love this film, is the soundtrack by composer Carl Davis & English Chamber Orchestra gives for the home video reissue. It was very captivating. Added to the remastered version, with very few film grain. Then you have a very watchable movie. Overall: Even with the downer ending, the lack of music, the over promoting of alcohol abuse & cigarette smoking, I still found myself, glue to my screen. In my opinion, this movie is way better than 1954 or 1959 color versions or any of the previous films like 1915's 'Old Heidelberg' or the 1923's German version, combine. It's truly a classic that needs to be seen. Highly recommended checking out.

*LOTS OF SPOILERS. A DOUBLE-WARNING, AS I DON'T WANT TO SPOIL THIS ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE FOR YOU*

When I'm writing about this one, I tend to run out of superlatives halfway through. It's the greatest film from one of Hollywood's greatest directors; a silent translation of a popular operetta, and as much fun, romance and heartache as most people can generally stand across an hour and three quarters.

Ramon Novarro is the titular prince, the nephew of the king of Karlsburg, whose restrictive upbringing - one of "duty, obligation and loyalty" - goes out the window, however briefly, in a fug of love, friendship and beer, swirling (swilling?) across the old city of Heidelberg.

The love - and the beer, for that matter - comes from an ethereal but down-to-earth, slightly cross-eyed barmaid (Norma Shearer): the guileless, glugging Kathi forever the high point of her screen achievements. Novarro himself wasn't blessed with the greatest range, but then you don't want J. Carrol Naish as your callow, conflicted young romantic, you want a sweet, sensitive, big-eyed kid with a seductive streak - and who more suitable than Novarro, a Latino sex symbol whose tenderness and vulnerability were all too real.

You want your kindly professor, his sense of fun overriding his sense of decorum, played by someone with the chops and twinkle-in-the-eye of Jean Hersholt. And, of course, you want Lubitsch, the inimitable, irreplaceable Lubitsch, behind the camera, every scene handled with that "Lubitsch touch", every moment seeming to offer something new and extraordinary to bring a smile to your lips or a tear to your eye: Shearer checking out Novarro with absolutely no subtlety when they first meet, a garden-full of beer glasses raised with military precision, the look on the lead's face as his love interest downs an entire pint, the pair's spirited night-time excursion to the finest field in movies, and that heartbreaking return to Heidelberg, as heartfelt a paean to lost innocence and the youth that is never to return as the movies have ever served up.

You can analyse the film a dozen different ways and it comes up faultless - from its abundance of visual metaphor, shifting perspectives used to illustrate the prince's changing moods, to the director's sparing use of intertitles, and the use of a groundbreaking shot in summation that predates The Long Good Friday by 53 years - but it all adds up to the same thing: a film for the ages, an emotionally overwhelming portrait of self-sacrifice, paradise lost and position found, of young lovers meeting like passing trains, together for a fleeting, shining moment, then torn away by "duty, obligation and loyalty". And it's all scored to perfection in the old Thames Silents version by the peerless Carl Davis.

"It must be wonderful to be a prince," muses one of the town kids, studying a portrait of Novarro. On this evidence, not so much, but then isn't life just about enjoying those perfect moments when they come? This film has more than almost any other.

Their finest year …

Nineteen Twenty-Seven was the year of miracles. Motion Pictures reached a parity of technology and creative expression, resulting in the greatest collective output of this or any other year, unsurpassed in both quantity and astonishing quality. It was the year of F. W. Murnau's masterpiece Sunrise and Frank Borzage's 7th Heaven, both starring Janet Gaynor, both produced by Fox and both showered with generous and well deserved awards. While Chaplin was missing from 1927, two of film's comic legends produced what many consider their finest work. Buster Keaton's Civil War tale The General and Harold Lloyd's rural gem The Kid Brother appeared. A banner year for Weimar Cinema, UFA produced G. W. Pabst's beautiful but nearly forgotten The Love of Jean Ney and Fritz Lang's futuristic nightmare, Metropolis, while French master Able Gance released his monumental epic, Napoléon. In the year Kevin Brownlow described as "Annus Mirabilis," Hollywood leader MGM contributed Greta Garbo and John Gilbert in Love, an adaptation of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and a breathtaking Ernst Lubitsch production, The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg.

The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927)

Friday, July 13, 7:00 p. m., The Castro, San Francisco

Based on Wilhelm Meyer-Förster's story of doomed romance between a young prince and an innkeeper's daughter, The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927) was released by MGM following Sigmund Romberg's Broadway Operetta in 1924. Director Ernst Lubitsch offered a flattering combination of humorous chiding, casual effervescence and tragic duty-before-love resignation, in this lyrical adaptation, his eighth American film.

The wealth of craftsmanship and technology available within Hollywood's greatest studio is visible in the lighting, editing and photography of each and every frame. Starring in one of her finest roles as Kathi, Norma Shearer rivaled any actress on the lot. She was cast in the best productions, under the aegis of her future husband, executive producer and boy genius Irving Thalberg. As Prince Karl Heinrich, Ramon Novarro's expression of naive exuberance contrasted perfectly to the militaristic reality of his royal obligation. The cast was rounded out by a group of consummate supporting characters including, Jean Hersholt, Gustav von Seyffertitz and everyone's younger self, Philippe de Lacy.

A master of light comedy, Lubitsch fails to demonstrate the depth of despair and tragedy seen in the films of Borzage, Seastrom and others, but the exhilarating high entertainment of The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg is only matched by the exceptional beauty of the principle actors. Lubitsch conveys their shared desire by superimposing their eager faces, plunging the camera into close-ups and revealing the Prince's desperate fantasies of what can never be. With the timidity of a sheltered child, Karl Heinrich enters the beer garden below his rooms, seeking the acceptance of his classmates and Kathi's love. Lubitsch choreographed the swarming mass of uniformed and attentive young men with such fluid mastery, they seem to extend and punctuate every movement and gesture Karl Heinrich and Kathi make. At the moment their love is realized, they withdraw from reality, reclining in a fantasy of luminous flowers, beautiful, unreal and impossible.