IMDb RATING
6.2/10
2.1K
YOUR RATING
Poor boy Tom Canty and Edward, Prince of Wales exchange identities, but events force the pair to experience each other's lives as well.Poor boy Tom Canty and Edward, Prince of Wales exchange identities, but events force the pair to experience each other's lives as well.Poor boy Tom Canty and Edward, Prince of Wales exchange identities, but events force the pair to experience each other's lives as well.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMark Lester's last acting role. He gave up acting due to the film's poor reception. It was widely rumoured, beginning around 2010, that he would return to acting in a portrayal of King Harold II in a film called "1066". Reports of this project faded toward the end of the 2010s without the film being made.
- GoofsAfter Miles Hendon fights with John Canty & his neighbors, Hendon lies apparently dead on the ground. One of Canty's neighbors warns Canty: "...The police'll beat on ye, even if no one else does..." The term "police" did not exist in England until the eighteenth century. He should have said watchmen or constables. This is a mishearing; Nipper says, "the priest'll peach (inform) on you if no-one else does." The priest has just examined the seemingly lifeless body of Miles Hendon and shouted "murderer!" at John Canty.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Making of 'The Prince and the Pauper' (1978)
Featured review
Great support, but the center does not hold...
This is an oddly mangled version of the famous Mark Twain novel. Historically, Edward VI became king at age 10, and had been dead for three years when he would have been Mark Lester's age (18) at the making of this film. Why director Richard Fleischer chose to transmute the title characters from children to late adolescents is a mystery to me. It makes their bumbling in their respective reversed roles more pathetic than sympathetic. Mark Lester's performance, in both roles of prince and pauper, I thought was distinctly undistinguished in view of his earlier achievements. Perhaps he was already thinking of his medical career ahead. Now having said all that, the strength of this movie, such as it is, lies in its powerhouse supporting cast: Oliver Reed, Raquel Welch, Ernest Borgnine as the abusive father, George C. Scott as a brigand, Rex Harrison, David Hemmings, and even Charlton Heston as Henry VIII -- WOW! As I watched, I wished they had just left the protagonists out altogether and let these master actors tell the story of Sixteenth Century Tudor intrigues. To view or not to view? It's a toss-up: you decide.
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- shneur
- May 26, 2006
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $8,000,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 48 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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