About the Student Prince

I started going to the San Francisco Silent Film Festival in 2007, when I saw a film called “The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg,” a film directed by Ernst Lubitsch in 1927.  This glorious film stars Ramon Navarro as the Student Prince and Norma Shearer as Kathi, the beer garden waitress he falls for while studying in Heidelberg.  The play, with Sigmund Romberg’s music, opened on Broadway in 1924.  If one thinks of a typical Hollywood musical with their song and dance numbers, it may seem odd that a silent movie could so successfully pull off an operetta.  However, the performance included a wonderful performance on the mighty Wurlitzer organ by Dennis James, who provided the wonderful Romberg touches.

Ramon Navarro and Norma Shearer

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Of course, a future king in Habsburg Germany cannot marry a beer garden waitress, so we know where the film is going.  Despite the charming story, the story drives home the theme that maybe the Prince is not so lucky with his life after all.  At the end, he can never go back to the carefree days of Old Heidelberg.

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