The Prince and the Showgirl

Luckily Queen Elizabeth II allowed some of her own Coronation footage from 1953 to double up for her grandfather’s forty-odd years earlier and so provide a backdrop for this unlikely romance between a visiting prince regent and a theatrical type who might well have piqued the interest of Edward VII. The fastidious prince (Laurence Olivier) is attending the ceremonies with his mother-in-law, the deaf as a post Queen dowager (Dame Sybil Thorndike) and his teenage son, the king (Jeremy Spenser) and staying at their embassy under the watchful eyes of the Foreign Office’s finest “Northbrook” (Richard Wattis). It’s the latter man who has to arrange entertainments for his guest so organises a visit to the theatre where he takes a liking to the plain speaking American “Elsie” (Marilyn Monroe). When she is invited back for a candlelit supper, she knows all too well what he has in mind and so begins a cleverly constructed cat and mouse game that sees her soon get used to the vodka, champagne, caviar and machinations of her host. Meantime, the young King is getting fed up playing second fiddle to his father and so is doing some plotting of his own - some scheming that soon involves “Elsie” in a little unexpected familial peacekeeping duties. It’s a sumptuously staged costume drama for which I felt both Olivier and Monroe ideally suited. His direction allowed himself to effortlessly become the foil for a Monroe who is on entertaining form throughout with a performance that might have impressed George Bernard Shaw. The pacing is a little uneven, with Olivier also keen to include some lengthy ceremonial imagery (and music) which does rather call an halt to proceedings towards the end, and I could also have done with a bit more from Dame Sybil and from the scene stealing Wattis but in the end I felt this as much a meeting of acting styles and generations as it was a period drama and despite my initial reservations, I did quite enjoy it.