A now forgotten Noel Coward play is the source for this bittersweet tale of a doomed love. It fooled me too because at the beginning of the film, I was sure that it was Fredric March who was the member of a royal family or the aristocracy, not Claudette Colbert. Boy was I surprised when it's she who gets the telegram that she is now queen because of the sudden death of her father and must rush back. It's a reverse of "The Student Prince" but very close to all of those Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier operettas, and several other similar films, a recurring theme that Paramount returned to over and over again in the 1930's.
Through royal destiny, she's engaged to foreign prince Paul Cavanaugh, but there's rumors of rebellion under way and there's a shot fired at Colbert which March prevents from hitting her. Their reunion is blissful even just for a moment, and it's obvious that for that brief moment she comes back to life and wouldn't mind being assassinated to get out of her nightmare of a life.
The scenes leading up to the attack on the palace are fraught with tension as lady in waiting Ethel Griffies panics in fear of the violence erupting, especially when they attack the local power station and storm the palace. Twists abound in this crowd pleasing romantic drama that left me with a big smile, especially with the small supporting role of Alison Skipworth as a humorous grand duchess with her own romantic stories of love between people of different classes and the hatred she had for the wealthy men she was forced to marry.
Through royal destiny, she's engaged to foreign prince Paul Cavanaugh, but there's rumors of rebellion under way and there's a shot fired at Colbert which March prevents from hitting her. Their reunion is blissful even just for a moment, and it's obvious that for that brief moment she comes back to life and wouldn't mind being assassinated to get out of her nightmare of a life.
The scenes leading up to the attack on the palace are fraught with tension as lady in waiting Ethel Griffies panics in fear of the violence erupting, especially when they attack the local power station and storm the palace. Twists abound in this crowd pleasing romantic drama that left me with a big smile, especially with the small supporting role of Alison Skipworth as a humorous grand duchess with her own romantic stories of love between people of different classes and the hatred she had for the wealthy men she was forced to marry.