The Prisoner of Zenda (DVD)

The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) starring Ronald Colman, Madeleine Carroll, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., C. Aubrey Smith, Raymond Massey, Mary Astor, David Niven. Colman, as a central European prince and his English cousin, plays a dual role. The prince, due to be crowned king, drinks some drugged wine and is unable to attend the ceremonies. His English cousin, a dead ringer for him, fills in. Problems arise when the English cousin falls in love with the princess Flavia (Carroll), who is destined to marry the leader of the country -- be it King Rudolph (Colman) or his evil half-brother Michael (Massey). The real King Rudolph is the prisoner of Zenda -- he's abducted and imprisoned at a hunting lodge called Zenda by the villainous Rupert of Hentzau (Fairbanks). His rescue is the action set-piece that forms the climax of the film. The subtitles are good. Grade: B

Becoming Jane (DVD)

Becoming Jane (2007) starring Anne Hathaway, James McAvoy, Julie Walters, James Cromwell, Maggie Smith. Novelist Jane Austen (Hathaway) faces the same choice as so many of her heroines -- whether to marry for love or money -- in this quasi historical drama. Although little is known of Austen's real life, the filmmakers have taken it upon themselves to posit a life for her which seems made up of fragments of her novels. They do not offer us a happy ending -- how could they? Jane Austen never married and died young. Grade: B