The Prince and the Pauper

The family movie in all its splendor !although it's basically" an Errol Flynn movie," it's a long time before the famous handsome actor appears and anyway the real stars of the movie are the sensational Mauch Twins.

Based on a novel which tells an implausible story (but didn't Alexandre Dumas do the same in the "vicomte de Bragelonne " in which the Sun King had a twin too?), with a moral full of wisdom : the taxes on the windows is a theft,says the would be king,because the air and the sun do not belong to us; the royal seal ,which can send people to the scaffold is ridiculed and used as nutcracker; when he visits the dregs of the society ,the would be beggar discovers the sufferings of his people . His protector is foot loose and fancy free and does not care a little bit for the honors or the mountain of things the young king wants to offer .

Billy Mauch,dressed in royal clothings , is at first completely lost in this unknown world of luxury , but he regains strength when he discovers his court's greed (of which the old king Henry- colorful Montagu Love - was aware )Robert is particularly moving when he says her "our father " prayer before a traitor who wants to do away with him .

Fleischer 's color remake (1977) is fine ,but the black and white Twain adaptation was not surpassed.