Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Holstra Boring, long, and too preachy.

SparkMore n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Ian (Flash Review)This story was so intriguing that there were 4 or 5 remakes and/or adaptations based on this 1922 original. There is a prince who will be coronated king the following day. Some other royals hatch a plan to kidnap him, thus allowing one of them to be crowned king. Once the king goes missing, some of his allies spot a lookalike and decide to have him pose in place of the future king. He has to convince the future king's lovely lady as well as his friends that he is the real guy. The story sets up for some fun obstacles and to see how things play out. The film does a good job of organizing several characters, has some nice castle shots yet the pacing could have shifted up a couple gears.

Paularoc Based on the hugely popular late Victorian adventure novel by Anthong Hope, this silent version is very entertaining and moves along at a good pace, especially at the last half of the movie. King Rudolph V of Ruritania's coronation is but a day away. The King's brother, the Grand Duke "Black" Michael has a plan to keep the King away from the coronation and have himself crowned King instead. The King is not widely popular with the people and also is a drunkard. Michael drugs a bottle of wine that he sends to the King as a gift. The King gulps down the wine and falls into a stupor which will make it impossible for him to attend the coronation. As it happens, the King's devoted Chief of Staff, Colonel Sapt, meets a distant cousin of the King's, Rudolph Rassendyll, an English gentleman educated in Heidelberg. In appearance Rassendyll is the exact double of the King and Sapt convinces him to take the King's place at the coronation. While impersonating the King, Rassendyll falls in love with the King's intended, Princess Flavia and she with him. The adventure continues with murder, betrayal, kidnapping and a daring rescue of the King. Lewis Stone does an admirable job as Rassendyll. Oddly, in several scenes, Stone reminds one of Ronald Colman. Ramon Navarro sparkles as Michael's henchman Hentzau - he is conniving but also has flair. The actor playing Colonel Sapt is great and his scene late in the movie with Rassendyll and Princess Flavia is wonderfully done and quite touching. The ending of the movie avoids having what we think of as the typical Hollywood ending. Colonel Sapt has the last word when he says to Rassendyll "God does not always make the right men kings. You are the finest Elphberg of them all." What a fine 19th century sentiment that is. And probably small consolation to Rassendyll.

Michael Bo A retiring English country gentleman, Rassendyll, is mistaken for his distant cousin, King Rudolph of Ruritania. When the king is taken hostage by his jealous brother, Black Michael, Rassendyll agrees to act as the king in the coronation ceremony.It takes a long time for this version of 'The Prisoner of Zenda' to get moving. The first hour or so is stodgy and less than riveting film-making, and then it gradually picks up momentum, and the last half hour packs a decent punch, especially action-wise. But all in all, a rather more lackluster, even crude entertainment than I had expected after the exhilarating 'Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse', also by Rex Ingram.The script is largely at fault, with the scenes so disjointedly put together that it does not in long stretches make a lot of sense. It has the makings of some interesting psychological insights, but does not explore them. I would have made more - MUCH more - out of the fact that for a long while Black Michael seems a pretty decent fellow, genuinely in love with Antoinette and understandably preoccupied about leaving the fate of his country to his feeble-minded brother. But Ingram makes nothing of it and seems curiously uninspired.The youngish Lewis Stone is an earnest Rassendyll/Rudolph, and sort of holds his own in the climactic sword-fight with, among others, Ramon Novarro. And now we are getting somewhere. This is Novarro's film. He was hardly a star when it was made, and his role does not take up a lot of screen time, but Novarro eats up the scenery with his monocled, slick diabolism. "While you're unhung, Rentzau, hell lacks its master!", Stone says, and right he is. Novarro is pure evil, and a delight to watch.

Ron Oliver Rudolf V, the King of Ruritania, has been kidnapped by Black Michael, his evil half-brother, and locked in the dungeon of the fortress of Zenda on the eve of his coronation. By a wild twist of fate, it falls upon a look alike distant cousin, the Englishman Rassendyll, to impersonate the king and effect his rescue before either one or both of them are killed by Black Michael or his henchman, Rupert of Hentzau. With two beautiful women complicating matters, and danger lurking at every turn, how can THE PRISONER OF ZENDA possibly be saved?It is unfortunate that this fine silent film is completely overshadowed by its 1937 talkie remake starring Ronald Colman. It is also unfair. Silent films & talkies are two different art forms and should not be put into competition against each other. Each art form is perfect in its own way. And so it is with the 1922 PRISONER OF ZENDA. Excitingly produced, with excellent production values & good acting, this movie stands on its own merits and on its own feet.Those familiar with Lewis Stone only as a fine character actor during his talkie career at MGM may be surprised to see him here as a romantic lead, and in a swashbuckler no less. But he is very good in his dual roles of Rudolf & Rassendyll. Strangely, at times he closely resembles Colman, but this is a coincidence no one could anticipate.This was also the breakout picture for Ramon Novarro. Born to a large wealthy family in Mexico, he had arrived in California as a 15-year old looking to become a singer. That led him into dancing & finally to acting and the movies. Working incredibly hard for years, and largely supporting his family (driven North by Revolution) he finally caught the eye of director Rex Ingram. In ZENDA, the 22-year old Novarro plays rascally Rupert, who, with his little beard & moustache & face wreathed in constant cigarette smoke, looks quite sardonic. He does very well with the unsympathetic character. Playing a mid-European, Novarro begins a career which would have him acting every sort of ethnic role, from Hebrew, to Polynesian, to Chinese.The rest of the cast all lend able support: Stuart Holmes as the wicked Black Michael; Alice Terry as the beautiful Princess Flavia; Barbara La Marr as the lovely Antoinette de Mauban, desperately in love with Michael; and Robert Edeson & Malcolm McGregor as two staunchly loyal officers of the king. Little comedian Snitz Edwards has a small role as a funny butler.