HIS ROYAL SLYNESS

HIS ROYAL SLYNESS (US 1920)
Directed by Hal E. Roach

Charles Morrow, in “It’s Good to be the King. Hollywood’s Mythical Monarchies, Troubled Republics, and Crazy Kingdoms” (Andrew Horton, Joanna E. Rapf, eds., A Companion to Film Comedy, 2012), concisely explains why American comics found Ruritanian stories so ripe for parody: “make-believe settings allowed them the freedom to poke fun without fear of offending nationalist sentiments – or harming box office receipts – in any particular foreign market.” He could also have added that the theme’s ubiquity made it an obvious target, especially for republican America, where monarchies aren’t meant to be taken seriously (but so often are).
Hal Roach’s
His Royal Slyness is set in the “little Kingdom of Thermosa. Adjoining the Isle of Roquefort and the coast of Razzamatazz.” The Prince of Razzamatazz is sent to America to be educated, where he’s enticed by vamp Verona Vermuth and consequently resists returning home for Princess Florelle of Thermosa to choose marriage between him or the Prince of Roquefort. A doppelgänger (of course) comes along in the shape of a travelling bookseller – played by Harold Lloyd’s brother Gaylord Lloyd – and the resemblance is so striking that the Prince sends the bookseller to Thermosa in his stead, with the line, “Wouldn’t you like a steady job as a Prince – and marry a real Princess?” The kingdom however isn’t in good shape – the nobles are dissolute, the peasants are revolting, and the bookseller gets caught up in a Bolshevik insurrection. Court costumes are a nonsensical grab-bag of Tudor, Edwardian, and Ruritanian styles, while the revolutionaries are dressed much like their Russian counterparts might have been in that very year.
His Royal Slyness was the fourth release in Lloyd’s new series, heavily promoted in the trade press as “$100,000 two-reel comedies” due to the (exaggerated) amount of money put into each one. Filming had to have been no later than mid-August 1919, since it was completed before the horrific accident on 24 August that cost the star a thumb and forefinger. Reviews were largely glowing, with Variety (13.02.1920) calling it “by far the best comedy that has ever been put out with Lloyd, and it evoked genuine laughter, the kind that comes from within and is unrestrained,” while the New York Times critic, writing (09.05.1920) about several early entries in the series, remarked, “There has been more laughter and better laughter on Broadway because of them than there would have been otherwise. Because they are funny.” Only Photoplay (04.1920) had some hesitation: “This is another mythical kingdom story – my word, where will it ever end?”

Jay Weissberg

HIS ROYAL SLYNESS (US 1920)
regia/dir: Hal E. Roach.
titles: H. M. [Harley Marquis] Walker.
asst dir: Alfred J. Goulding.
photog: Walter Lundin.
cast: Harold Lloyd (The American boy), Mildred Davis (principessa/Princess Florelle), Harry Pollard (principe di/Prince of Roquefort), Gus Leonard (re/King Louis XIVIIX&), Noah Young (conte/Count Nichola Throwe), [Marie Mosquini (Verona Vermuth), Gaylord Lloyd (Prince of Razzamatazz), Helen Gilmore (regina di/Queen of Thermosa), Hazel Powell (domestica di Verona/Verona’s maid), Joseph Hazelton (cameriere di Roquefort/Roquefort’s valet), Marie Benson, Hal Berg, Sammy Brooks, William Gillespie, Max Hamburger, Estelle Harrison, Wally Howe, Mark Jones, Dee Lampton, Fred C. Newmeyer, John M. O’Brien, Robert Emmett O’Connor, Charles Stevenson].
prod: Hal E. Roach, Rolin Film Company.
dist: Pathé Exchange.
uscita/rel: 8.02.1920.
copia/copy: DCP, 23’12”; did./titles: ENG??.
fonte/source: Lobster Films, Paris.

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