All the King's Horses

The plot for "All the King's Horses" is one that sounds enjoyable and should have been. Sadly, however, even with so much promise, the film failed to deliver.

King Rudolf XIV of Langenstein is having problems with Queen Elaine. He's all work and no play...and finally, in disgust, she has left him. When the King learns that there is an actor who is his spitting image (an overused and silly plot device...though it worked well in films such as "The Prisoner of Zenda"), he sends for Carlo. The pair meet and decide to switch lives for a bit. The new King makes a lot of reforms which tick off the elite but soon the Queen has returned and loves the new husband. In the meantime, the real King hangs out in Vienna.

There are two huge problems. The biggest are the incredible number of songs in this movie. This plot does NOT lend itself to singing and with so many songs, there isn't enough room for the story. Second, why did they pick the Danish actor Carl Brisson for the role? I occasionally had a hard time understanding his accent...closed captions would have helped. Overall, a decent idea for a story that simply had too many distractions and not enough time to develop the plot.