The Prisoner of Zenda

On the eve of his coronation the king of Ruritania is drugged by the half-brother who wants the throne for himself. As it happens a cousin from England, his exact likeness, is visiting the country, and the king’s people persuade him to stand in at the ceremony. When the real king is then abducted, his followers set out to find him, while the stand-in falls in love with the king’s intended bride, Princess Flavia. Rex Ingram directed this silent adaptation of Anthony Hope’s novel. Lewis Stone plays both the king and his double, Alice Terry plays Flavia, and Ramon Novarro is the villain Rupert of Hentzau, still billed then as Ramon Samaniegos; the part was his breakthrough. John Seitz shot it. The Metro Pictures production opened on 31 July 1922. Rupert survives in the novel; in the film he goes over a waterfall.