Film, TV or Theatrical Adaptations
Several adaptations were made, although not as many as for the film career of Zenda. Film versions of Rupert of Hentzau include:
- 1915 film version Rupert of Hentzau starring Gerald Ames in the title role and Henry Ainley as Rassendyl
- 1923 with Lew Cody as Rupert, turning the tragic ending on its head (Flavia abdicates to marry Rassendyll, and Ruritania is declared a republic).
- A spoof version, Rupert of Hee Haw, was released in 1924. Stan Laurel plays an alcoholic king, whose queen, Mae Laurel, deposes and replaces him with an identical salesman named Rudolph Razz. Razz's manners are so uncourtly that a courtier, James Finlayson, challenges him to a duel. (See also Lord Haw-haw.)
A 1964 British television series Rupert of Hentzau starring George Baker as John Rassendyl, Barbara Shelley as Queen Flavia and Peter Wyngarde as Rupert of Hentzau.
David O. Selznick at first considered making a film version of the novel, as a follow-up to his hugely successful 1937 film of the The Prisoner of Zenda, using again Douglas Fairbanks Jr. He decided not to because of the tragic subject matter and his commitment to filming Gone with the Wind.
On screen, Rupert as a character has been played by matinee idols such as Ramon Novarro (1922), Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (1937), and James Mason (1952).
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