The Lost Prince (2003) (TV)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Stephen Poliakoff

Writer:

Stephen Poliakoff (writer)

Release Date:

18 December 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Tagline:

The heartbreaking story of the prince that history forgot

Plot:

The true story of the British royal prince locked away because of having epilepsy.

Plot Keywords:

Prince | Queen | 1910s | Epilepsy | King

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 8 wins & 13 nominations

Cast

Daniel Williams	...	Prince John (younger)
Matthew James Thomas	...	Prince John (older) (as Matthew Thomas)
Brock Everitt-Elwick	...	Young Prince George
Rollo Weeks	...	Prince George
Gina McKee	...	Lalla
Tom Hollander	...	George V
Miranda Richardson	...	Queen Mary
Bill Nighy	...	Stamfordham
Bibi Andersson	...	Queen Alexandra
Ron Cook	...	Lloyd George
Frank Finlay	...	Asquith
David Westhead	...	Fred
John Sessions	...	Mr. Hansell
Michael Gambon	...	Edward VII
David Barrass	...	Kaiser Wilhelm

Runtime:

180 min (2 parts)

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Singapore:PG | UK:12 (part 2) | UK:PG (part 1)

Filming Locations:

Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England, UK

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Goofs:

Factual errors: At the funeral of Johnny, on screen it's clearly summer (rhododendrons in bloom), but in reality he died in January.

Quotes:

Queen Mary: I am English. From top to toe, from toe to top. I am English, from top to toe, from toe to top. I am English, from top to toe, from toe to top.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Prince John: The Windsors' Tragic Secret (2008) (TV)

Poignant, lovely, but you better know your history

Excellent period film with a liberal dose of brief stunning vignettes that haunt the viewer for weeks afterward.

This film keeps stepping into and outside the action, drawing us intimately into Lalla's desperate care for Prince John and Queen May's inability to cope with the crumbling world around her -- then it steps back and views the world through John's eyes, turning us into spectators of something so large and complex (the destruction of centuries of royal culture and the social revolutions of the early 20th century) that we can only make sense of bits and pieces.

As noted elsewhere, the acting is marvelous, with Miranda Richardson simply outstanding.

The drawbacks are few but significant. The biggest one is the lack of hints for those not deeply versed in the personalities and events of the Great War. For instance, I'm not sure Stamfordham's name is ever actually mentioned in the film. How are we supposed to know who he is? There are a number of examples of this type of thing. I felt fortunate to know as much as I do about this period of history in England and Russia but was, at times, distracted from the film as I wracked my brain to piece together who the characters were talking about.

While the film assumes an extensive knowledge of this time period, it oddly did not portray Dowager Queen Alexandra's deafness, nor, to my memory, mention Alice Keppel or show King Edward as the dissolute party boy he was.

It is for these reasons I rated the film as I did; there were a few too many times when I was drawn out of the story. But there are images from the film that haunt me yet, and the whole sad plight of Prince John seems a metaphor for the distorted time period covered in the film.