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The Prince and the Showgirl

1957 1h 57m Comedy List
50% Tomatometer 10 Reviews 55% Audience Score 2,500+ Ratings
A traveling party of royals from central Europe arrives in England in 1911, as the host country prepares to celebrate the coronation of a new king. But when the visiting Regent (Laurence Olivier) goes to a musical theater, his attraction to American performer Elsie (Marilyn Monroe) makes it hard to stay focused. Soon, Elsie learns of a potential coup in the Regent's home country, and it's up to her to smooth things out -- or watch as the nation hurtles toward instability. Read More Read Less
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Critics Reviews

View All (10) Critics Reviews
Matt Brunson Film Frenzy A man frequently heralded as cinema’s greatest actor gets paired with a woman frequently heralded as cinema’s greatest movie star, and guess who wins? Yup, the movie star. Rated: 2/4 Mar 26, 2023 Full Review Film Culture Staff Film Culture An outdated, routine comedy with excellent performances by Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe. Jun 7, 2022 Full Review Mike Massie Gone With The Twins The movie is a touch too long and the ending, which is intended to be hopeful, is relatively disconcerting. Rated: 5/10 Aug 23, 2020 Full Review Clyde Gilmour Maclean's Magazine For a romantic trille, it's a bit long and repetitious, but the oddly matched principals are often quite funny together. Nov 22, 2019 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews Genial but Dull and heavy-handed Ruritarian comedy that co-stars the 50-year-old British stage great Olivier with the 30-year-old American Hollywood sex queen Marilyn Monroe. Rated: B- Aug 6, 2012 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Despite the star caliber, it's a minor movie--a curiosity--for both actor-director Olivier and star-producer Monroe, in large part due to the weaknesses of the source material and direction. Rated: C+ Aug 4, 2012 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Mark A Should have been better. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/03/23 Full Review david f Marilyn Monroe is almost the only good thing about this movie, which features Laurence Olivier as a thickly accented and douchey member of a European Royal Family. Monroe is a likable, funny showgirl and she more than holds her own against the brilliant thespian. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Russ G Who would have imagined Marilyn Monroe and Sir Laurence as leading man and lady in the same film? I thoroughly enjoyed this. Norma Jean more than held her own opposite the acclaimed thespian. My only complaint is that audiences deserved to see Marilyn in one or two changes of wardrobe which could have easily been written into the script. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/01/22 Full Review Liam D A Solid but overlong Farce This Drama is not as strong as the main stars other bodies of work but it isn't worth skipping Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 11/25/21 Full Review jordan m They really pulled an excellent performance out of Monroe here, regardless of the problems they had in getting her to remember lines and all that. Comparing her performance here to hers in Seven Year Itch from two years prior shows an enormous leap in the difficulty of her role, and they don't even seem to have taken any shortcuts to help her get there like they almost certainly should've done. There were long takes, lengthy monologues from her character and rapid-fire dialogue exchange with the legendary Larry Olives. The increased focus on her acting talent seems like an intentional choice by Marilyn, who bought the rights to the play presumably after having seen someone else do the role she wanted, and one should certainly applaud the effort as it showed gumption, foresight (she was worried about getting older and losing her looks) and courage. I think with a few more roles of this caliber she would've improved enough to make this into some really compelling viewing material; unfortunately that didn't happen here in large part thanks to the source material, with its subject of too-foreign political intrigue and lack of interesting supporting characters. A particularly annoying detail was that they took a tight 90-minute rom-com and made it into a two-hour slog by having them sit through the entire coronation scene with nothing going on during it to advance the plot; they could easily have faded out as they entered the church and skipped that entire thing. Marilyn's character was a good one, the don't-underestimate-me blonde, and it deserved a transplant into a more interesting context. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member laurence olivier is horrible - you can tell his pissed that he's in this movie with her Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/07/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Prince and the Showgirl

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Cast & Crew

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Movie Info

Synopsis A traveling party of royals from central Europe arrives in England in 1911, as the host country prepares to celebrate the coronation of a new king. But when the visiting Regent (Laurence Olivier) goes to a musical theater, his attraction to American performer Elsie (Marilyn Monroe) makes it hard to stay focused. Soon, Elsie learns of a potential coup in the Regent's home country, and it's up to her to smooth things out -- or watch as the nation hurtles toward instability.
Director
Laurence Olivier
Producer
Laurence Olivier
Screenwriter
Terence Rattigan
Production Co
Warner Brothers/Seven Arts
Genre
Comedy
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Dec 31, 2008
Runtime
1h 57m
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