O Clube dos Suicidas

Prince Florizel of Bohemia -- where have I heard that before? In one of Shakespeare's final plays, 'The Winter's Tale.' There, the young prince falls in love with a beautiful shepherdess, Perdita, who is actually a princess. She doesn't know that, of course (it's a version of the Cinderella story). Roz Russell is also incognito in the film, but she knows who she is. So 'Winter's Tale' gives MGM the idea for filling out the Stevenson story by giving a role to Russell. The film also has traces of Henry IV, where the king admonishes his son, and where, at the end, the son must fight for his kingdom, as Prince Hal does against Hotspur at the Battle of Shrewsbury. There's also a trace of 'As You Like It,' a play in which a disguised woman administers a love-test to the man in whom she is already interested. I do not believe that the Shakesperean elements of this film have been noticed. I'll have to reread the Stevenson "Suicide Club' stories, which I do not have at hand, to see how much of the Shakespearean context is there. It's a strange and sometimes compelling film, beginning with a musical comedy format, where we expect to see Nelson and Jeanette any moment, and then moving into a fogbound London mystery. Montgomery is very convincing as an absolutely fearless prince and Russell is lovely as the mystery woman assigned to kill the prince. This one is worth watching. I just read the Stevenson story. Prince Florizel is of Bohemia (a la 'Winter's Tale'), but there is no woman in the story, only the mention of a failed love affair at the outset that motivates the young man who introduces the two Bohemians to the Club. So Roz's role as the disguised princess is an addition to the story -- and a good one at that!