Thirty Day Princess (1934)

Wow! Such a good movie.

good back-story, and good acting

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Thirty Day Princess (1934) *** (out of 4) A banker (Edward Arnold) talks Princess Catterina (Sylvia Sidney) into visiting America so that she can get a loan for the poor people of her country. Once there she falls ill so the banker comes up with a scheme to find a look-a-like to take her place. He finds actress Nancy Lane (Sidney) who is told of the job and one thing she must do is pull the job over on a newspaper owner (Cary Grant).THIRTY DAY PRINCESS isn't a masterpiece but it's certainly a very fun and very entertaining little gem that should probably be better known among film buffs than it actually is. You'd think with Sidney and Grant as well as the screenplay being co-written by Preston Sturges that it would be better remembered today but for some reason it has pretty much slipped away.That's really too bad because there are some pretty good moments throughout the film including a wonderful performance by Sidney. She basically plays two different roles here and I thought she did a great job with both of them. I really loved the charm she brought to her characters and especially that innocence laugh she has as the Princess. I really thought she did a fabulous job at making the Grant character fall in love with her because the viewer too falls in love! The supporting cast is good too with Arnold playing a the bad guy with ease and Grant is also fun in a somewhat fast-talking role. Henry Stephenson doesn't appear in too much of the film but when he's on the screen he's great too.There are some logical issues with the film but that there is to be expected in this type of spoof. Director Marion Gering does a nice job at keeping the film running at a nice pace and he manages to get some nice laughs throughout. With that said, there's no question that it's the cast and especially Sidney that make this film so memorable and fans of her will really want to check it out.

The plot for "Thirty Day Princess" may have been fairly new or unusual in its day. And, even though the idea of a double to replace a character has been used in any number of movies since, this is still an interesting and entertaining plot. Perhaps the players have as much to do with that as anything else. In this case, that's mostly Sylvia Sidney, who plays Princess Catterina and her double, Nancy Lane. Cary Grant is Porter Madison III, a newspaper publisher. He's always looking for a scam or hot story to blow in his publication, especially if it has anything to do with Richard Gresham. Edward Arnold plays him. He has visited the mythical kingdom that is headed by the father of the princess. He is trying to get backing for a $50 million bond issue to help the small country update its infrastructure (plumbing, heating, etc.) for the poor (most of the population) who can't afford such luxuries. The king dare not leave the kingdom, but the princess goes to represent the country in a visit to the U.S. That enables Gresham to lock up the bond backing. The day of her arrival, the princess comes down with the mumps and is quarantined for a month. Gresham swears the doctor and staff to secrecy, and while the princess is sequestered, he sends his men out to find a look-alike for the princess. Naturally, they stumble onto Nancy Lane who just happens to be a very hungry actress looking for work. She adopts the accent of the princess instantly. When Porter meets the princess at a formal outing, arranged by Gresham, he is smitten by her. Her job is to "vamp" Porter to keep him from nixing the bond effort. Gresham will stand to make money on the deal, but it is above board. Madison just doesn't like him or trust him – possibly from something in the past that we never learn about. Some very amusing and good comedy ensues as Porter courts the princess around the city and social circuit. One can imagine how it comes out – and it does. Sidney's performance is very striking. Her countenance, sincerity, and beauty is very convincing of innocence and a good person. Arnold's Gresham gets tough at times, but he's OK, even with his own personal grudge against Madison. In the end, Nancy and the princess hatch a plan to cool the cold war between the two. And the movie has a happy ending. Grant plays his character as somewhat impetuous, flamboyant and overly confident at times. He knows a real princess when he sees one – so he says. A couple of comedic lines occur between him and his staff. Madison comes to the office with a shiner he got in an argument. He tells the managing editor (played by Robert McWade) it was from a door. The editor says, "Things are sure getting' tough. You can't go anywhere nowadays without a door walking up and bust you in the eye."Later, Madison wants the paper staff to investigate the claim of a phony princess. He says, "How many reporters are working here?" The editor replies, "About a quarter of 'em."This is an early Cary Grant film that has some other very good actors of the day. The plot is good and the comedy and romance work nicely. Most should enjoy this movie.

I liked this movie far more than expected - it's a quite funny mistaken identity kind of film - with the requisite newspapermen, wealthy men, princesses, romance that any Depression era comedy relish. I had some concern about the always erious Sylvia Sidney in a comedy - but her intelligence is just wonderful in the line readings - she's quite an actress.Cary Grant is very young - and not quite as deft and light as in later years - but fine, not clunky at all.Edward Arnold is thoroughly enjoyable in the kind of role he was born to play - the plutocrat. I particularly enjoyed the amusing discussion (hard to imagine in a film now) with the king of the necessary size for the bond issue for Taronia's electrification.There is further interest in the comedy's deadly serious background of extreme poverty/destitution/fear of hunger that haunts the film - it's very much there in the asides, in the protagonist's motivation.I hadn't realized that Sylvia Sidney (known as a real symbol of the Great Depression) and Cary Grant had worked together twice before. They work very well - and she's far prettier than I remembered.You'll enjoy this one - the writing (by Sturges and others) is truly sparkling, the comedy is fast, intelligent and the show charming.

"Thirty Day Princess" can easily fit into the oeuvre of master comedy writer Preston Sturges although this film predates his 1940 directorial debut by six years. The basic comic premise of one woman impersonating two very different people on opposite ends of the social scale (while convincing the man she's romantically involved with that they are different people) is difficult material to bring off. Within that context Sturges inserts his unique satiric sensibilities on sex and social mores.Sylvia Sydney, like Barbara Stanwyck seven years later in Sturges' wildly successful "The Lady Eve," succeeds admirably in using accent and mannerisms to distinguish the two characters. Additionall, both talented actresses have the chameleon-like ability to actually look different in both roles without resorting to any major make-up changes. Unfortunately, Cary Grant, at this stage of his career, had not as yet developed his screen persona to a degree that he could capture as much of the Sturges zaniness that Henry Fonda did in the 1941 film.While Sidney is portraying two completely different people in "Thirty Day Princes," the audience in "The Lady Eve" knows that Barbara Stanwyck's character is essentially playing two different facets of her own personality. so the similarities in her two roles are dramatically plausible. Although it is highly improbable that Sidney's characters, Nancy Lane and Princess Catterina, could look so much alike under ordinary circumstances, Sturges inserts a sly bit of covert sexual innuendo at the film's climax with a subtle dialogue exchange between Nancy and King Anatole suggesting that she possibly is the King's illegitimate daughter, illegitimately sired during a previous trip to America. Sturges was a master at getting questionable material like this discreetly past the censors of his day.Stealing the show, however, is character actor Vince Barnett, usually assigned to play low level gangsters and bumbling waiters, as Catterina's obnoxiously infantile fiancé, Prince Nicholeus. He delivers a hilarious performance, alternating accents from Mittel-English Ruritanian to Brooklynese. Considering Sturgis' loyalty to eccentric character actors during his heyday at Paramount, it seems unusual that he would not have written additional roles for Barnett in his series of screwball comedies in the early 40's as Barnett did occasionally turn up in Paramount films like Bob Hope's 1942 MY FAVORITE BLONDE.