Old Heidelberg **** (1927, Ramon Novarro, Norma Shearer, Jean Hersholt) – Classic Movie Review 6883

Director Ernst Lubitsch’s 1927 Viennese fairy tale romantic movie is one of the great silent film classics. It stars Norma Shearer and Ramon Novarro.

Lubitsch’s beautifully realised bitter-sweet love story is the tale of Austrian crown prince Karl Heinrich (Novarro) sent to Heidelberg to complete his studies, and his love for Kathi Ruder (Shearer), the beautiful barmaid daughter of an innkeeper, Old Ruder (Otis Harlan).

Based on Sigmund Romberg’s operetta, The Student Prince, it is the eternal story of the conflict between princely duty and private passion, and the eventual sacrifice of love for duty. The director beautifully brings out the nuances of his tragic, universal theme, which is that past happiness cannot be recaptured.

Old Heidelberg was lovingly restored by David Gill and Kevin Brownlow and revived in 1999 with a delightful new score by Carl Davis played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Also in the cast are Jean Hersholt as Dr Jüttner, Gustav von Seyffertitz as King Karl VII, Philippe De Lacy as the Heir Apparent, Edgar Norton as Lutz, George K Arthur, Edythe Chapman, Bobby Mack [Bobbie Mack] as Kellermann, Edward Connelly, Otis Harlan, John S Peters, Lionel Belmore, Lincoln Stedman and Leicester Wagner.

Old Heidelberg (also known as The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, or The Student Prince) is directed by Ernst Lubitsch, runs 105 minutes, is released by MGM and Photoplay, is written by Marian Ainslee (intertitles), Ruth Cummings (intertitles) and Hanns Kräly (continuity), from the book Alt Heidelberg [Old Heidelberg] by Wilhelm Meyer-Förster, is shot in black and white by John J Mescall, is produced by Ernst Lubitsch and Irving Thalberg, and is scored by Carl Davis (or by William Axt or David Mendoza).

Lobby card for The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, also known as Old Heidelberg.

Old Heidelberg was a hit but its exorbitant production costs kept it from making a profit and it lost $307,000. It took 108 days to shoot and cost $1,205,000, with Lubitsch going way over budget for authenticity. He went to Germany to film establishing shots, unused in the movie, and the small amount of location work in the film was shot in Laurel Canyon.

Romberg’s operetta was remade as The Student Prince in 1954.

It was released in the US on 21 September 1927. Star Shearer married producer Thalberg on 28 September 1927, a week after the premiere.

Thalberg offered Erich von Stroheim the director job but he declined after a poor experience working for him on The Merry Widow (1925).

In 2007, it was the opening night film for the 12th Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival at San Francisco’s Castro Theater.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6883

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