Princess O'Rourke

As WWII rages in Europe, Princess Maria (Olivia de Havilland) is living in New York City under the watchful eye of the U. S. Secret Service. As a guest of the country she is protected night and day. Besides layers of security, she also lives under the scrutiny of a royal retinue that acts as her watchdog and agent of propriety. She sees herself as living in a gilded cage, but things change when she is flown to San Francisco---or at least that is the intent. A series of mishaps diverts her path and places her incommunicado for a brief time.

When she reappears in New York, she "escapes" for some prosaic adventures and meets an American pilot about to join the Air Force. For the first time, she can imagine a life free of royal responsibilities, but the princess knows what she must do.

Some films are like time capsules---glimpses back at another time---and "Princess O'Rourke" is full of overt and intrinsic references to its era, making it very interesting to watch. Besides the references to wartime behaviors and values---which are many---the plot contains references to social mores and political myths.

It is always nice to watch Olivia de Havilland; even more so, knowing the battle that was being waged between the actress and the studio.

The final scenes take place in the actual White House. How preposterous it would have been to Jane Wyman, who plays the second female lead, to consider that her husband, Ronald Reagan, would eventually live there himself.

Lovely romantic comedy about a princess (Olivia de Havilland) who falls in love with an American pilot (Robert Cummings). He falls for her, too, but the problem is he thinks she's a maid, not a princess. Charming, fun movie with an extremely likable cast. In addition to de Havilland and Cummings, there's fine support from Charles Coburn, Jack Carson, Jane Wyman, Harry Davenport, and Gladys Cooper. What a lineup! This one's pretty underrated. The more famous Roman Holiday owes a lot to this film. Also worth seeing for Olivia's bath scene, which I found pretty risqué for the time. That's probably the most skin Olivia ever showed on screen. She's beautiful in this, one of her best romantic comedy roles. Love the cute bit with FDR's dog, too.

Pre-dating "Roman Holiday" by ten years is this charming little comedy about a runaway princess, this time in New York, falling in love with a commoner. Like "Roman Holiday" the part of the princess is played to perfection, this time by Olivia De Havilland. And she's matched well by Robert Cummings, with a brilliant supporting cast headed by Charles Coburn, Jack Carson and Jane Wyman.

Unlike "Roman Holiday" this film opts for an overly-simplistic solution that is neither believable or satisfying. It's quite fun though being in the White House and watching FDR's dog play an important role in the drama. And the Oscar winning script is pretty good until the finale.

But it is De Havilland that makes the film work. Early in the film she takes a number of sleeping pills, and her drugged acting is superb. She also has a very raunchy scene in a bath! She achieves a perfect balance between comedy and drama, and once again proves that she was one of the best actors of her generation.

Seeing Princess O'Rourke last night on TCM, it was interesting to learn that interiors at the White House were shot at the real location. And while the current president was occupied by something called World War II, he found time to have his well known Scot's terrier Fala make a guest appearance.

That is the real Fala you see playing message courier between Princess Olivia DeHavilland and the pilot from Brooklyn, Robert Cummings. She's a princess from some unnamed European country that is currently occupied by some jackbooted uninvited guests. Most of the royalty in exile settled in the United Kingdom during war time, but some actually did make it here. In fact Olivia's father the king is in London as the story goes.

And this is a Cinderella story in reverse with the boy from Brooklyn, meeting, wooing and winning a princess. Cummings is an airline pilot scheduled to go in the Army Air Corps who meets princess DeHavilland on a flight that gets canceled back to New York. A slight overdose of sleeping pills leaves her in his unwanted hands. The unwanted part changes soon enough as it does in all films of this type.

The ironic thing is while some royalty did make it back to their countries, a lot were dispossessed permanently by those other totalitarian occupiers from the East after World War II. They didn't exactly live in the diminished circumstances that Olivia was heading for. Some of Charles Coburn's concerns as her uncle are quite real.

Princess O'Rourke is a charming comedy though dated by its topical wartime references. Look also for nice performances by Jack Carson as Cummings's co-pilot and Jane Wyman as Carson's girl friend.

Olivia de Havilland shows once again that she can play a quiet, timid young lady as she had done 4 years earlier in the epic "Gone With the Wind."

Cast opposite a wonderful Robert Cummings, as Eddie O'Rourke, the two provide an absolute great chemistry between them in this wonderful film.

My only surprise here is that Gladys Cooper, as a secretary, has so little to do here.

As always, Charles Coburn is terrific, especially by showing his comic and dramatic abilities in films. The scene where he tells Eddie to get out is just great.

The picture just proves over and over that wealth and status can't bring you happiness.

The odd-ball meeting between the Princess and Eddie provides for so much fun here. Rounding out the cast is Jane Wyman and Jack Carson, as the married friends of Eddie.

The scene where Mary (Olivia) is willing to do anything for the war effort was quite humorous. She is better than any princess, the woman is no snob. Eddie shows his mettle when he refuses to give up his American citizenship by marrying a foreign princess. He wishes to do his patriotic duty, the great theme for American films during World War 11.